The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IN an effort to provide more opportunities for local players to participate in the game, a group of persons have come together to form the Spiking in Paradise Thanksgiving Volleyball Tournament.

The committee, including Dr Bridgette Rolle, Cora Hepburn, Dawn Woodside-Johnson, Lancerlot Miller and Edrick Poitier, will host the tournament from November 17-19 at both the Anatol Rodgers and DW Davis gymnasiums.

According to Rolle, the tournament will be held as a part of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture’s National Sports Month and will be open to teams in both the private and public schools and the New Providence Volleyball Association.

“Initially we had hoped to have some international teams come and participate, but they said because it was too close to Thanksgiving, they won’t be able to travel this year,” Rolle said. “This is just the beginning because we hope to make this an annual event.

“We are also looking at putting on several tournaments during the year so hopefully we can get those teams out of the region to come in and participate. We just want to provide a lot more opportunities for our local players to participate in the game.”

While the games will kick off on Friday, November 17 with the NPVA men and ladies’ teams participating, Rolle said they will be staging competition between the top four schools in both public and private on Saturday. The tournament will close out on Sunday, November 19.

“We are looking forward to putting on a very exciting tournament,” Rolle said. “We know that the NPVA is currently playing its regular season right now and so there is a lot of interest in volleyball. We want to increase that excitement.

“We have added the high school division to allow the teams playing in the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association and the Bahamas Small Schools Association, as well as the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools, to come out and participate.”

Rolle said it’s important to have the high school teams participate as well because it will provide them with an opportunity to also get to play some extra games. She said they are thrilled to be able to open the tournament to the future volleyball players in the country.

“The Ministry of Sports had approached. We had originally planned to host this tournament in December, but they approached us and asked us if we would like for the tournament to be a featured part of the activities,” Rolle said. “They are also a sponsor for the tournament.”

Rolle said the tournament will also have some participation from at least Grand Bahama, which is expected to be represented by an All-Star team.

She noted that they were also looking at getting a team in from Abaco, but there will be some participation of players on some of the local teams.

Teams still interested in participating in the tournament are urged to contact any of the committee members. The registration fee is $200 per team. The winning team will earn a cash prize of $2,000, second will collect $1,000 and third place will pocket $500 to share among its players.