It was a day of fun, excitement and rigorous competition at the Golden Grove All-Age School last week when primary schools from across St Ann battled for the top school honour in the St Ann Volleyball Association Primary School competition.

Hoolebury Primary from Runaway Bay defeated Brown’s Town Primary to emerge winners from the group of eight teams which reached the quarter-finals.

Bamboo Primary and Bensonton Primary finished third and fourth, respectively. The top-four teams will represent the parish at the national level.

Vanie Clarke, president of the St Ann Volley Ball Association, said the competition has been aiding in the development of the sport not just at the parish level, but also the national level.

It’s our vision to have volleyball being the major sport being played in St Ann,” Clarke added.

He said it is the dream of the association to see more students playing the sport.

“We want to give them something more than just football. That’s where we see volleyball going and this competition is a stepping stone to it,” Clarke stated.

Clarke said he expects that with more children coming out of the primary level playing the sport, then more children will be playing at the high school level.

“The fruits of what we are doing here in this competition, we will see it in another couple of years,” Clarke said.

He expressed his gratitude to the Brown’s Town Community College for sponsoring the event for the past two years.

The St Ann Volleyball Association’s vice-president, Richard Johnson, is happy with the growth of the sport at the primary school level.

“The competition has been ongoing for six years; however, the association has been responsible for the competition for three years,” Johnson, who is also team manager for the Jamaica Senior Men’s Volleyball team, said.

“From this competition we realise that more schools are doing it as a part of physical education… our goal at the association is to get all the schools in the parish — primary junior high and prep schools — to be a part of this competition,” the competition’s co-ordinator continued.

Vincent Clover, sports co-ordinator at the Brown’s Town Community College, said the institution was proud to be sponsoring an event which is helping the development of youth in the parish. He said sponsoring the event is one of the college’s ways of giving back to the parish it serves.

“We have an obligation to serve the wider community, not just in academics, but in any positive developmental venture… sports is one such area in which we feel we are obligated to give back to the community,” Clover stated.