Nicholas Williams (men) and L’fe Roberts (women) have been ap­point­ed cap­tains of the re­spec­tive T&T men’s and women’s teams for the up­com­ing Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CA­ZO­VA) Un­der-23 Cham­pi­onship to be host­ed by the T&T Vol­ley­ball Fed­er­a­tion (TTVF) at the Mal­oney In­door Sports Are­na from Thurs­day to Ju­ly 13.

The Williams-led U-23 men’s will fea­ture Michael Bur­kett, Dar­i­on Sparks, Jerome Mor­ri­son, Josi­ah Jankey, Jahreef Miguel, Eli­jah Best, Ray­on Dick­son and Je­re­mi­ah Jankey. Miss­ing out on the fi­nal se­lec­tion from the 15-man squad were the trio of Njeah Her­nadez, Darreon Sandy, and Josie Ce­de­no.

Williams and his team­mates will serve off their ti­tle cam­paign against Mar­tinique in the fi­nal match of the open­ing day of com­pe­ti­tion while Guade­loupe and Suri­name face off in the open­er from noon.

They will then meet Guade­loupe on Ju­ly 11, from 6 pm, fol­lowed by Suri­name in their fi­nal round-robin match on Ju­ly 12, from 8 pm, at the end of which the top two teams will con­test the gold medal match on Ju­ly 13, from 6 pm, while the third and fourth place round-robin fin­ish­ers clash for the bronze medal from 2 pm.

The lo­cal men will con­tin­ue their prepa­ra­tions for the tour­na­ment with a train­ing ses­sion to­day at the South­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Pleas­antville, San Fer­nan­do from 7 pm to 10 pm; and to­mor­row at the tour­na­ment venue in Mal­oney from 12 noon to 2 pm.

In the women’s seg­ment of the com­pe­ti­tion, the T&T women, un­der the guid­ance of head coach De­on Hutchin­son and with a team that fea­tures Roberts, Kris­tian­na Richards, Sadie Torkar, Mee­ka John­son and Adalia Badroe, all cred­itable beach vol­ley­ballers as well, as Jor­danne Hutchin­son and her sis­ter Alyssa, and USA-based Natas­sia Bap­tiste who at­tends Oral Roberts Uni­ver­si­ty in Tul­sa, Ok­la­homa, where she’s ma­jor­ing in En­vi­ron­men­tal Sci­ence.

The un­for­tu­nate trio to be left out from the 15 play­ers short­list­ed were Tal­ibah Ham­let, De­siree Don­ald, and Ali­ka Hold­er.

The T&T women will be­gin their cam­paign ver­sus Cu­ra­cao at 6 pm, with Mar­tinique and Suri­name meet­ing in the first match at 2 pm. The “Ca­lyp­so Spik­ers” then come up against Mar­tinique on Ju­ly 11 from 8 pm, and Suri­name on Ju­ly 12, and at the end of their round-robin se­ries, the top two teams will clash for the CA­ZO­VA crown on Ju­ly 13, from 4 pm, pre­ced­ed by the bronze medal du­el from 2 pm be­tween the teams that fin­ish third and fourth on the ta­ble.

The lo­cal women’s team con­tin­ue their train­ing ses­sions to­day at the East­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Tacarigua from 9 pm to 11 pm, fol­lowed by an­oth­er ses­sion on Sun­day at Mal­oney from 10.30 am to 1 pm.

The tour­na­ment is be­ing used as a qual­i­fi­ca­tion tour­na­ment for the U-23 NORCE­CA Con­ti­nen­tal Pan Amer­i­can Cup Cham­pi­onship and will al­so pave the way for the teams that par­tic­i­pate in the Pan Amer­i­can Ju­nior Cham­pi­onship, which is held every qua­dren­ni­al, and this year it will be held in Asun­ción, Paraguay.

How­ev­er, this year’s qual­i­fi­ca­tion tour­na­ment is not for that spe­cif­ic com­pe­ti­tion and will serve as plan­ning in prepa­ra­tion for the next qua­dren­ni­al Pan Amer­i­can Ju­nior Cham­pi­onship.

The na­tion­al teams are ex­pect­ed to com­pete in the NORCE­CA Se­nior Women’s Fi­nal Four in Puer­to Ri­co from Ju­ly 16-21, fol­lowed by the CA­ZO­VA U-17 Cham­pi­onships in Ja­maica from Ju­ly 28 to Au­gust 4, the Pan Amer­i­can Cup Se­nior Women’s Cham­pi­onship from Au­gust 1-11 and the CA­ZO­VA Se­nior Cham­pi­onships from Au­gust 14-24.

Ac­cord­ing to TTVF pres­i­dent Daymien Stew­art, the lo­cal fed­er­a­tion finds it­self in a race against time to get the much-need­ed fi­nan­cial sup­port for the de­mand­ing yet promis­ing in­ter­na­tion­al sea­son.

“How­ev­er, to ful­ly re­alise the po­ten­tial of our ath­letes and pro­vide them with the op­por­tu­ni­ty to com­pete at the high­est lev­els, we es­ti­mate that close to $1.5 mil­lion is need­ed,” said Stew­art.

—Nigel Si­mon