A key player in the Jamaica volleyball setup believes the addition of taller players will enhance their chances of winning the CAZOVA Women’s Championship.

Renee Temple, who is a key member of the attacking thrust, has championed this view.

“For the first in a long time I see we have height. We’re not normally a team with people of height; it does make a big difference in volleyball,” said Temple.

The local team has been preparing for over two months for the regional tournament, to be hosted by the Jamaica Volleyball Association (JAVA) at the National Indoor Sports Centre from Wednesday July 26 to Monday July 31.

Eight countries will be participating, inclusive of the hosts — The Bahamas, Curacao, Suriname, Martinique, Guadeloupe, the US Virgin Islands and Trinidad and Tobago, the defending champions.

“I think we have a pretty good chance. I see us at least getting to the finals. As far as I see, our toughest battle will be Trinidad because they have more game experience and, in terms of team bonding, I think they have more of that,” she analysed of the two-island republic, which recently played in world-level qualifiers.

This tournament actually doubles as a World Championship qualifier which has heightened the focus of the Jamaicans, who were runners-up at the Caribbean tournament when they last played in 2015.

The 32-year-old Temple, an outside hitter, describes herself as a “late bloomer to volleyball”.

Early interest and development was stoked largely through Wolmer’s Girls’ School, where she begun playing in first form and later for Wolmer’s Pirates, a club they formed. She went on to UTech, then UWI Volleyball Club, where she has won “many local titles”.

She has also done well internationally.

“We (UWI) travelled overseas and we’ve been to The Bahamas, and we’ve won tournaments that they’ve hosted there. We’ve been to Trinidad where we also won, and I got the MVP. I’ve gotten quite a few MVP titles as well,” said Temple, the holder of a bachelor’s degree in education, technical and vocational studies, having majored in business and computer studies.

An acccounting officer at Jamaica Floral Products (Evergrow Garden Centre), on South Avenue in Kingston, she first earned national representation in 2000 on the junior national volleyball team.

“We went to Cuba and it wasn’t pretty because it was NORCECA (north, central America and Caribbean) and there were some pretty tough teams, like Mexico,” she shared, laughingly. “We got some proper beatings, a wake-up call, and I said to myself ‘you don’t really know volleyball’.”

Four years on she enjoyed better experience on her first senior tour, placing second at the 2004 CAZOVA Women’s Championships in Barbados. Having finished in a similar spot last time, Temple believes they can beat the field this time, including the team that upended their hopes in the final, Trinidad and Tobago.

“I think we can put up a pretty good fight if we come together and work hard,” she said. “We’ve been training hard so I think we can give them a run for their money, possibly overcome them.”