THIRTY-ONE teachers, drawn from 20 primary schools all across Georgetown, yesterday successfully completed a one-week volleyball clinic, hosted by the Guyana Volleyball Federation, in collaboration with the Samaritan Sports Support System and the Allied Arts Department of the Ministry of Education (MoE). President of the Guyana Volleyball Federation, John Flores, hailed the clinic as a timely initiative, coming at a time when the Federation is looking to build on its programme of targeting younger players. The clinic was held from June 6 to 10.
“This will feed for us the foundation of volleyball, so I am very optimistic about the programme working; this is very, very excellent for the sport and for Guyana.
“We’re trying to start a group of young players at the Under-16 and Under-17 levels, so we’re hoping to use this as a feeder to have youths train up for these programmes, so this was an excellence idea and I want to praise Samaritan Sports that assisted us with the logistics.” Flores proclaimed.
Jadeshwar Doolchand, one of the coaches who conducted the clinic, noted how encouraged he was by the enthusiasm of the teachers who participated. Though none of the teachers came into the programme with any previous volleyball knowledge, Doolchand noted that he was able to motivate an affinity for the sport in the teachers as well as equipping them to the necessary level, for them to go back and teach the sport at the primary level.
“From the inception of the programme my goal was to get them to like the sport so that they can go back to spread the sport. I would have achieved that. We have achieved a lot in the five days. None of them ever played volleyball before and I got the opportunity to work with them and motivate them.
“They have come a long way, they can play volleyball competitively now, they can coach, and they can pass the knowledge on to the children,” Doolchand said.
Doolchand said that getting the teachers to like the sport was most important because as they come up against challenges, it is their love for the sport that will have to encourage them.
They are going to have challenges, I taught them how to overcome those challenges. Whether support comes from the head teacher or the federation or the Ministry of Education the teachers themselves have to be strong enough to go out there and want to get the job done and want to teach the children.
The participants themselves were very excited to be a part of the course, and were satisfied with how the week went.
“I always liked the sport, but I never got around to the opportunity since it wasn’t available for us, so when the opportunity arose I jumped at it. For the week I have learned so much, it was a wonderful experience, and I can’t complain,” remarked one of the participants from the North Georgetown Primary School.
As the teachers now go about taking the sport to their various schools, they will receive the support of the Samaritan Sports Support System, which will try their upmost to ensure that the teachers do not give up on teaching the sport.
“Even when coaches are trained they just fall away because there is no structure to hold them together, encourage them and build them up. With this group of teachers here now we will be sticking with them as they continue their training, then when they start to coach in their various schools, we will be there with them so that there will be no falling away,” said Robert Sam, a representative for the Samaritan Sports Support System