Volleyball Coach hopeful for good returns

Brian Burke, Head Coach of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Senior Male Volleyball team to the North America, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Federation (NORCECA) first round Group B qualifiers of the World Championships to be staged in St Lucia this weekend, is looking forward to good things from his charges, despite their relative inexperience.{{more}}

Burke told SEARCHLIGHT last Thursday during one of the team’s practice sessions at the Girls’ High School court that his team, has been working hard for the past six weeks towards giving a good account of themselves in the qualifiers.

“We have a fairly young team as most of the guys are just out of high school or college, so in terms of experience, they are not as experienced as the last team we took to the qualifiers two years ago,” Burke said.

“It is a new crop of players it’s a new team that we are trying to build, with about four of them from the last team; but if they play to their true potential, they can be very competitive,” the senior head coach projected.

In assessing the opponents, Burke said: “St Lucia, we know they are the team to beat, and one of the problems we have had over the years is a height issue, because we had always been the smallest team; we feel comfortable against Grenada, but St Eustatius, we do not know much about them and we do not have any stats about them.”

Burke disclosed that another of his charges’ foreseen challenges heading to St Lucia, is making the adjustment from the hard court conditions to the indoor board surface.

“In terms of playing defence, with the indoor facility it is a different technique, because you feel more comfortable going to the ground and going into the indoor, it might pose a transition problem to us,” Burke stated.

However, Burke believes that with the team reaching its destination one day prior to their first fixture, and with practice time afforded, this will assist greatly in the familiarization process.

The 12-member team is set to depart this Thursday for St Lucia, seeking to overturn the host, St Eustatius and Grenada at the competition venue, the Beausejour Indoor facility at Gros Islet.

The Vincentians face-off with Grenada in their opening fixture this Friday morning from 9, then play St Lucia from 8:00 pm that same day.

St Vincent and the Grenadines meets St Eustatius on Saturday from 9:00 a.m.

The semi-finals are set for Saturday evening with the first and fourth places squaring off from first, then the second and third do battle.

The winners go forth to the finals, with the two losing semi-finalists to go head to head for the third and fourth spots. These matches are scheduled for Sunday evening.

The top three teams advance to the next phase of the qualifiers which take place in 2013.(RT)