By Neto Baptiste
Former national volleyball player and coach, Rosely Lewis, believes that a series of poor coach decisions may have cost the Antigua and Barbuda senior women’s team a place in the final of the recently concluded Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Women’s Championships held in St Maarten.
Antigua and Barbuda finished third in the tournament after beating hosts St Maarten 25-12, 29-31, 25-21 and 25-23. The Dadli Spikers however suffered losses to the BVI and St Lucia in the process.
Lewis believes that a number of the issues that affected the team could have been solved with simple tactical adjustments.
“You’re saying change it up, change it up from day one and every single set you go out there and do the same thing. Let’s look at when the BVI beat us because you have an experienced setter sitting on the bench for five sets and you never put her in the game, you never once say ‘let me give the new setter a rest and see if things can change’. There was nothing, you didn’t make any decision that was going to help the team and in particular as a coach. I know how that could make my team feel because they will see it and say the coach failed me,” she said.
Coach Fitzroy Benjamin, during a previous interview, said a myriad of issues affected the team during the tournament, adding that senior players may not have been pleased with a decision to incorporate a number of young players into the squad.
Veteran player and libero, Rosie Simon, denied those claims by pointing to one instance where the senior players protested over exclusion of one such player when the team was being selected.
“We literally fought for a younger player to be on the team because she was not selected and we thought that she should have been selected for the squad. So, that whole statement, just throw it down the toilet because if we felt that way then why would we fight for someone to be on the team? She was only 16 but she came, she was dedicated, she played a good ball game, she was a good blocker, she moved the ball and she is the future,” she said.
Simon, however, made it clear that although she does not object to the integration of younger players into the senior squad, they must earn their right to play.
“I think there should be a natural progression and inclusion of youths into a team, so I have accepted that but you cannot select persons to play based on age. They must have merit to have a national selection to play so I am glad they got the experience. A lot of teamwork would have been necessary to pull off the tournament and because there were a lot of younger players in the squad, a lot of decision-making at crucial points would have been necessary to pull it off,” the player said.
St Lucia were winners of the tournament with BVI finishing in the second position. Hosts St Maarten were fourth with Grenada, Anguilla and St Eustatius ending fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.
