Last year’s GAAA 'National Tournament of Champions' winning team, C V Bethel, pose outside J S Johnson Insurance Ltd with (left to right) Robert Bartlett, Senior Manager, J S Johnson Insurance Ltd; Stephanie Hanna, Public Relations and Administrations Manager, J S Johnson Insurance Ltd; Evon R Wisdom, Head of the Sports Unit, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; and the C V Bethel coach, Kevin Edgecombe. Photo: Edgar Arnette.
FOURTEEN volleyball teams, seven male and seven female, from across the country, will compete for the titles this year at the third annual “National Tournament of Champions” on November 19-21.
The four high school sporting associations that will take part in the tournament - sponsored by J S Johnson Insurance Agents and Brokers Ltd are the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS), the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association (GSSSA), the Bahamas Scholastic Association (BSA) in New Providence and the Grand Bahama Secondary Schools Athletic Association (GBSSAA).
The tournament, run by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in conjunction with the Bahamas Volleyball Federation (BVF), will again feature a round-robin format in the preliminary round with the top teams advancing to the playoffs.
Jason Saunders, the Tournament Director, thanked the corporate sponsors for their involvement and said that their contribution last year resulted in a five-year scholarship to Charlotte, North Carolina, for Janell Curtis.
Saunders picked out Mechelle Moss, a student at St Augustine’s College, as “someone to watch” this year and credited her as being “the best all around volleyball player in the country”.
He added that “among the young women, competition will be especially fierce this year.” In general, he noted that the competition will be “tougher than it has been in the past” and he looks forward to an exciting and competitive tournament.
Saunders predicts that “no later than 2024, we will have a male or female team playing at the Olympic level”.
Evon R Wisdom, the head of the Ministry’s sports unit, remarked that he “hoped to see more young men and young women go off to school because of the scholarships that result from the tournament.”
Mr Wisdom noted that the teams selected to compete meet the “highest standard and level of play” and he ended by thanking two other corporate sponsors, Bahamasair and SunFun Beach Resort, who will transport and lodge students coming from the Family Islands, respectively.
St Augustine’s College (BAISS) and C V Bethel (GAAA) were last year’s tournament champions.
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