The Jamaica Volleyball Association’s coaches manager Steve Davis left the island yesterday afternoon for a two-week coaching exposure at leading Canadian institution Calgary University, which is guided by head coach Jesse Knight, who was in Jamaica last December.

“I am going to gain some experience and see how they run their programme,” Davis said yesterday. “As coaches manager we have brought in coaches from high schools in the programme and we meet the last Saturday of the month to exchange ideas on how to better our programme, so this will help us improve what we have here,” he added.

The Jamaica Volleyball Association (JaVA) is describing Davis’s two-week stint as “steps to improve the knowledge base and skill sets of its human capital”. The coaches manager will be “attached” to the university until February 21.

“The objective of the attachment is to facilitate exposure of our lead coach to a training programme that is of a higher standard than what currently exists in Jamaica,” explains JaVA president Major Warrenton Dixon.

“This is just one of many steps JaVA will be taking in the near future to improve the calibre of our local coaches. The process will likely involve bringing a high-level foreign coach to help with our local programme. Our focus though will see such a person acting as an adviser as opposed to being in charge of our training programmes and coaching doctrine,” JaVA noted in a release.

Head coach Knight leads the female programme at Calgary and was in Jamaica helping with the start-up of the inaugural primary and prep school programme set for island-wide launch on February 25.

“Having seen the talent that exists in Jamaica, I want to do all that I can to help develop Jamaican volleyball players,” said Knight.

Calgary University is ranked as one of the top teams in the Canadian University League.

Davis’s first assignment on his return to Jamaica will be to co-ordinate the Primary/Prep School competition.