A weeklong Volleyball training program, geared to potential Volley Ball coaches on Nevis, will climax on Friday 20th August.
The sessions are being conducted at the Bath Village hard court, located next to the Bath Village playing field.
The facilitator of the program is Gordon Mayforth of the USA, who has been coaching for over 36 years and has a world championship as part of his honours, when he coached the USA team to victory in the world games in 2001
He has won 4 professional championships and 7 national championships.
He has also lived and coached in 8 countries and Volleyball has taken him to 73 different countries.
Some of the teams/countries that he has coached include:
Osaka Blazers Sakai- 2003 to 2005 and 2019 to present
Japan-2018 to 2019
Al Jazira Sports club-2016 to 2017
Caribes de San Sebastian -2015 to 2016
Jakarta BN146-2012 to 2013 and 2015 to 2016
AEK Karava -2012 to 2013
Greece 2009 to 2010
JT Thunders Hiroshima -2007 to 2009
Approximately eight local coaches are involved in the coaching training program and they are being taught basic skillsets, which they will in turn attempt to pass on to the children in the Primary and Secondary Schools and also to the adults within the community.
According to Coach Mayforth, the training will be helpful in other disciplines outside of Volleyball.
One of the training techniques being utilized is the SMASH VOLLEY method of playing the game, which is a fun method that is being utilized to introduce persons to the game and get them interested, before getting into all of the hard and fast rules of the game.
Coach Mayfort who is being paid by the (Federation Internationale de Volleyball) FIVB, sees potential in the coaches who he is training and also sees a potential for the game to develop on the island.
One of the local coaches, Kerisha Powell, spoke on behalf of the participants and noted that they would have learned a lot thus far and stated that the training program has been interesting and useful.
She is looking forward to getting more persons locally involved in the game and anticipates the day when the sport can became one of the major sports on the island.