CVA aims to meet NSSU halfway

While netball and football are the most common sports in most schools, the Central Volleyball Association (CVA) has taken a stance to reach out to all Windhoek schools and roll out the game of volleyball as a development programme.
In an interview with Namibian Sun CVA development director Wendelina Nailonga said the reason behind establishing a schools’ league is that the association want to have the game played from a younger age.
“We plan to have this in order to help National School Sports Union (NSSU) with the performance of volleyball players in Namibia because we have realised that a lot of people in the country only get to learn about the sport at an older stage and end up getting poor performance,” she said.
She said CVA wants to start training the kids while they are young so that they can perform well in future to have good national team players.
She explained that the league is not part of NSSU but part of CVA which is under the auspices of the Namibia Volleyball Federation (NVF).
“Our aim is to have volleyball played extensively throughout the country and have a league from a very young stage,” she said, adding that the league is only for Windhoek schools at this stage.
She explained that the league is a development programme for the U/13 and U/17s.
“We want to achieve better players and by having leagues and making them play will obviously make them better players.
“We also want to increase their knowledge as well as that of teachers about the rules of playing the game as well as the basics of it.
“Teachers were not really involved in volleyball and people do not understand the game so that is why we first had to host a coaching course before launching the league,” she said, adding that the teachers have shown great interest so far.
The league will start next month and 11 schools have registered so far.

Shortcomings
Nailonga said some school principals are not so keen on the project.
“We are struggling but we trying our best with updating the school principals because they are not that much interested but others are just by speaking to them and convincing them about the league,” she said.
She added that after registration some schools have ended up withdrawing due to issues such as transport. “So far we are really struggling, maybe it is because it is the first year but we are adamant and will see how it goes next year.”
She called on school principals to be part of the game and also the teachers and maybe also have the league as part of their calendar.
“In the past they just had football and netball but they were not so in volleyball but it seems like it is going well and people are showing interest,” said Nailonga.
She added that the association needs funds to run its activities and maybe also help schools transport learners to training grounds.
“At least if we have transport for the learners then that will be a motivation to the schools as well and maybe some prize money for the teams because at the moment we only have a trophy and medals which maybe is not enough motivation for the teams,” she said.

KAINO NGHITONGO