AFTER months of meticulous planning, not even the passing of powerful Hurricane Beryl will stop the 2024 CAZOVA Under-19 Boys’ and Girls’ Volleyball Championships from getting underway at

G C Foster College of Physical Education and Sport in St Catherine this weekend.

The opening ceremony gets underway at 3:00 pm on Saturday, after which the Trinidad and Tobago girls will tackle Barbados at 4:30 pm. That is to be followed by a boys’ encounter between hosts Jamaica and Aruba.

Beryl lashed parts of the island and threatened to derail plans for the tournament but the steadfastness of the leaders and the participating teams prevailed.

On Saturday afternoon teams from seven countries, including the hosts, will have the opportunity to practise what has been preached to them by their diligent coaches over the years.

There will be seven boys’ and seven girls’ teams serving for silverware.

Apart from striving to match their counterparts in the skills they have learned, the visiting delegations will get the opportunity to experience Jamaica for nine days and meet new friends in the sport.

These championships will give the different teams a better appreciation of their quality, with a view of constant improvement after the celebrations are over.

The winners will be crowned Caribbean champions and, importantly, they would have got a chance to match skills and wits with the best from the region, thus taking another step towards eventual professionalism.

The defending girls’ and boys’ champions are US Virgin Islands and Suriname, respectively. The finals are scheduled for August 3.

Jamaica’s girls’ team is to be captained by Kaila Baker, while Toshiro Jones is the boys’ skipper.