Hectic year ahead for volleyball

Lekopanye Mooketsi | Thursday March 12, 2015 16:05

 

The senior volleyball teams are preparing for the qualifiers of the All Africa Games scheduled for Congo Brazzaville in September.

Various zones are supposed to hold qualifiers, leading to each region being  represented at the championships.  Molaodi said the qualifiers for both men and women’s teams are to be completed in May. 

Besides national team commitments, Molaodi said the federation would this year focus on development. He said they would like to find sponsors for the Under 17, 19 and 23 teams. “For other development, teams we have to work with educational institutions.  We also want to keep the out-of-school youth in the same category on their toes in terms of training,” he said. Meanwhile, Molaodi said he is happy with strides made, mentioning the performance of national teams and clubs in regional competitions. 

“We are doing exceptionally well at team and national level in the region.  The women’s team has been dominating regional competitions,” he said. However, he said the men’s club teams can do better. 

He said the aim is to go beyond the region and dominate at continental level. In a wide-ranging interview, he said there are plans to consolidate management structures. 

He said the Confederation of African Volleyball is happy with the manner BVF is run, with Botswana and Senegal largely considered model federations. “That recognition is important for us because most of the federations run professional leagues,” he said. He added they are keen to host international events if funds permit as such a step develops the sport.

Molaodi is pleased with the level of officiating.  “Most of the time the pool of referees are from Botswana at international assignments on the continent. 

Maybe what we need to work on is to improve the quality of coaches,” he said.  But, he lamented  the lack of local coaches due to the BVF’s failure to pay competitive salaries. 

On other developments, the BVF president said they are in the process of reviewing their constitution.

One of the amendments expected is to open up membership in order to accommodate even clubs registered as companies and not societies. He added that they are also in the process of developing beach volleyball before the end of the year.