T&T senior men’s volleyball team will step up their preparations for next month’s hosting of the Senior Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Championship with a live-in camp from tomorrow until Sunday at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.
The camp to be held under the supervision of newly-appointed men’s head coach and former player Sean Morrison will see the players undergo training at the near by state-of-the-art National Cycling Centre, in Balmain, Couva, the venue for the CAZOVA Championships from July 8 to 16.
Winners of two of the past four editions of the competition, T&T will face 2008 winner Martinique, Curacao and Jamaica in Pool E, while former winners, Bahamas (2012) and Barbados (nine-time champions) as well as Haiti and Suriname are in Pool D of the eight-team battle which serves as the Second Round of CAZOVA FIVB World Championship Qualifying and a qualifier to the NORCECA Continental Championship in Colorado Springs in October.
For the CAZOVA competition, T&T will be without the services of its two key players in Simon Blake, the “Best Spiker” and “Most Valuable Player” award recipient when it last won on home soil two years ago, and Portugal-based Marc-Anthony Honore.
Blake will not take part in this year’s edition as he is currently sidelined by an FIVB ban for a failed drug test at a NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit Tournament.
Honore is coming off an injury-prone season with Portugal A-1 champions, SL Benfica and did not participate in his team’s final, but should be available for the NORCECA Continental event, should T&T qualify.
Last week, Morrison confirmed the two players will be regrettably absent, but said he expected Honore to make a return to the team for the 12-team NORCECA event in Colorado Springs from September 24 to October 2, where five berths to the 2018 FIVB World Championship in Bulgaria and Italy will be up-for-grabs at the competition.
The confirmed participating teams so far are hosts USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the top two qualified teams from the tournaments of the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) and CAZOVA plus Guatemala and Dominican Republic who qualified from the tournament held in AFECAVOL.
Some of the current members in training who have been part of the two previous T&T championship winning teams are: Ryan Stewart (Glamorgan), Akim Bushe (SEPoS), Mikheil Hoyte (Technocrats), Russell Pena (Southern United), Brandon Legall (SEPoS), Joshua Mohammed (Southern United) and Kevin Nimrod (Southern United) and Newton Grant (Technocrats).
With the T&T Volleyball Federation also set to host a two-day Labour Day event as Maracas Beach on Sunday and Monday, Morrison noted that the pair of Daneil Williams and Marlon Phillip, who will participate at the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championship in Austria at the end of July, will be given Sunday off to compete in that tournament to help with their preparations.
T&T senior men’s volleyball team in training:
Ryan Stewart (Glamorgan), Akim Bushe (SEPoS), Mikheil Hoyte (Technocrats), Kameron Donald (SEPoS), Russell Pena (Southern United), Marlon Phillip (Technocrats), Brandon Legall (SEPoS), Adriel Roberts (Titans), Nicholas Prescott (Technocrats), Joshua Mohammed (Southern United), Daneil Williams (Toco Youths), Enrique Harry (Titans), Clinton Williams (SEPoS), Kwesi Daniel (Glamorgan), Stephan James (Glamorgan), Kevin Nimrod (Southern United), Newton Grant (Technocrats)