By Neto Baptiste
Coach of the senior women’s national volleyball team and former national player, Fitzroy Benjamin, has encouraged some veteran players to “be honest” with themselves and realise when they are no longer able to compete at the regional and international levels.
His plea follows what is being called a disappointing performance by the team at the recent Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Women’s Championships held in St Maarten where Antigua and Barbuda finished third following losses to eventual winners St Lucia and second placed BVI.
“The experienced players, if you ask them, they’ve probably been around for 15 to 20 years playing on the national team, and if you’ve never won his tournament at this level then it is time to be honest and give somebody else a chance. I will still compete in the national league and you can’t find two or three persons who pass the ball better than I do, but can I go and say that I am going to be playing for the national team at this age? It doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Questions loomed over the selection of the senior national team going into the tournament with pundits warning that the inexperience of some players in key areas could affect their performance.
Benjamin had however defended the coaching staff’s decision to expose a number of young players to the regional competition, including setter Harmony Edwards who played a significant role during the team’s participation.
“A lot of people ask about that position in terms of it being a rookie setter, but that was the setter we had working with. She had a good tournament and coming up from the round-robin from Wednesday to Saturday, she was the setter that was ranked number one in the tournament. So, [although] a lot of people are questioning [playing her], I think she did a good job. A lot of people asked about the distribution and it was a concern but she was putting it up to the middle mostly, and they were executing,” he 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.
