Following their historic qualification to the 2017 FIVB World Grand Prix League by beating Costa Rica in straight sets at the 15th Women's Pan American Volleyball Cup at the San Carlos Sports Hall, Dominican Republic on Wednesday, T&T Volleyball Federation President, Daymian Stewart said it was all about the players.
T&T began the 12-team tournament with a 0-4 record after losing to powerhouses and both four-time winners Cuba and USA and Argentina, all by similar 0-3 margins, and then Peru 1-3.
But with a chance to finish among the top six teams from the NORCECA Confederation at stake, the Renelle Forde-led six-time Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) champions came out victors over their jointly 36th ranked in the world Central Central Americans, 25-19, 25-14, 25-23 triumph in one hour and 21 minutes.
The win saw T&T end its pool round-robin play with a 1-4 record and six points, and spot in the seventh to tenth semifinals yesterday against Venezuela while Costa Rica ended 0-5 and had to compete in the playoff for 11th spot.Europe qualifies 11 teams to the Grand Prix while Asia gets five and Africa, the other two.
Commenting on the achievement Stewart said: "This one is all about the players, they have performed beyond their limits for years."
Reflecting on the long road to get to the level of playing in Grand Prix a few years after missing out on a World Championship spot by one win, Stewart said: "Before this tour I can recall the frustration the players expressed with the lack of resource allocated to them.
"Their efforts and titles over the last decade have all gone unrewarded." "However, the expected Grand Prix experience will increase the value of the athletes to the European and Asian clubs where some of them play professionally and where others aspire to ply their trade."
With regards to the benefits to the team Stewart said the exposure would create much more opportunities for young players from TT&T and the Caribbean by extension.
"Additionally as the team competes around the world, our country would receive great exposure in the volleyball crazy countries of Europe and Asia while we also would have an opportunity to host our group in T&T."
A former player himself, Stewart also sees this achievement as testimony to the vision of the former Prime Minister Patrick Manning and extended condolences to his family on his death.
"The foundation for all the T&TVF successes were built on a volleyball plan 2020; which was demanded by the then PM in 2005, and supported by the Sport Company and University of T&T (UTT). T&T volleyball changed thereafter as the women was then ranked 82nd in the world.
Stewart also highlighted the effort of having a domestic league pointing out that the Flow Premier League was also a great contributor to the level of the national players going into this international season.
"We at the T&TVF will also Stewart would like to share this achievement with our partners inclusive of the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, Ministry of Education, Sport Company of T&T, UTT, TDC, Flow, Blue Waters, Mushtaque Mohammed Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association President, Brian Lewis, President of the T&T Olympic Committee, and Ken Butcher (who started the process at SPORTT and UTT).
With proper planning and funding needed for the team to be very competitive and ready for the challenges ahead, Stewart noted that at this time the T&TVF is hard at work preparing plans for the next quadrennial and these plans are expected to be launched soon.
The USA ended as pool winners with a 5-0 mark ahead of Cuba and Argentina while Peru was just nosed out of the main draw playoffs on points ratio with all three teams at 3-2.
In Pool A, Dominican Republic sealed top spot with a 5-0 mark followed by Puerto Rico (4-1), the duo of Canada (3-20 and Colombia (2-3), Venezuela (1-4) and winless Mexico.
In explaining the magnitude of what T&T's qualification to the World Grand Prix which features the top 28 countries in the world means, Stewart noted that the Pan Am Cup features the best 12 teams from all of the Americas and is the highest Level tournament the national women's team participate in annually.