THE Jamaica Volleyball Association (JaVA) is earnestly continuing its drive to have volleyball played routinely in all schools, and this effort is receiving noteworthy traction at both the primary and secondary school levels.

The growing interest is credited to the efforts of zone/parish coordinators and PE teachers.

Since initiating the JaVA primary-level schools competition in 2010, the competition has grown to almost double the number of high schools participating in the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) competition, with over 60 schools participating in the 2013/2014 edition of the competition.

Westmoreland schools have shown the strongest interest in terms of total number of participants, due mainly to the efforts of Haile Mikael, who actually initiated a primary school competition in the parish in 2009. Mikael was later appointed as JaVA’s western region coordinator, with responsibility for St Elizabeth, Westmoreland and Hanover.

Richard Johnson, St Ann parish coordinator, has taken the parish from two participating schools in 2011 to 14 in 2013. Ricardo Williams and Andre Neil are driving the effort in St James, while Lester Bernard spearheads the effort in St Thomas, a parish that has racked up a few volleyball accolades over the past two years.

JaVA, through its school development manager, Major Warrenton Dixon, is pushing to realise even greater participation, particularly in the high schools and in the Corporate Area.

Over the past few months, more than 25 new high and primary-level schools island-wide have expressed interest and are taking steps to participate in volleyball competitions.

“We are really pleased with the increased interest and we are doing what we can, within our resource limitations, to nurture these displays of interest,” stated Major Dixon. “This is also a good time for them to show interest, so that they can capitalise on the presence of Augusto Sabbatini, the international volleyball coach visiting us from Brazil. We have organised a number of two-day coaching clinics at convenient locations around the island between March 25 and April 12. The clinics are targeted at PE teachers and coaches at the school level, but anyone who wishes to benefit from it can attend, and it’s free.”