The Brown’s Town Community College-St. Ann Volleyball Association held the semi-finals and finals of its fifth annual Under-13 Competition on Wednesday, November 30 at the Brown’s Town Primary School, St Ann.
The top four teams from St Ann competed for the championship title. Brown’s Town Primary beat Muirhouse in the finals 49-22 to take first place. Muirhouse Primary placed second. Third place went to Fort George Primary and fourth to St. George’s Primary. All four semi finalists out of the 28 schools represented the parish at the national finals which was held at the Ultimate Jerk Centre, Discovery Bay on Friday, December 2.
St. Ann is the only parish that has so many schools participating in this competition.
In an interview with The Times first vice president Richard Johnson explained that he is ecstatic about the growth of the association. “We started five years ago with two teams: St Ann’s Bay Primary School & Steer Town Primary & Junior High and to date the Garden parish is the only parish that has so many participating teams,” he said.
GROWTH
He believes the growth is as a result of their marketing and offering assistance with coaching. Mr Johnson expressed gratitude to the executive committee, president Vanny Clarke; general secretary Jermaine Gordon, and treasurer Fabian Sterling, for their dedicated team work and overwhelming support. He also thanked the sponsors throughout the years.
“Special thanks to our 2016 partners, Brown’s Town Community College, Achievers Sports & Trophy, North Eastern Construction Consultants and Association( NECCA) and Jamaica Volley Ball Association,” Mr Johnson said. He is also appealing to businesses in and out of St Ann to get on board in assisting them to extend to more schools in St Ann.
This year’s title sponsor was Brown’s Town Community College. Vincent Cover’ sports co-ordinator at the college explained that they came on board because they are committed to service. He said, as a result the administrator at the college believed it was a good fit to accept the proposal. He said BTCC believes in giving back to the community, and that service to community is not only in academics but also in other areas. “Sports help to develop certain character traits, concentration, discipline, promote team work and develop leadership skills within them,” he said.
MISSION
President Vanny Clarke explained to The Times that when he took charge of the SAVA in 2014, it was with a mission to grow the sport within the parish. “We set ourselves an ambitious target of being the single most effective entity for the development of volleyball in Jamaica, within the next five years. Two years on we have the largest Under -13 competition exposing well over 400 kids below the age of 13 to the sport. This we hope will create a foundation for the future growth at the senior level. Having exposed that many kids to the sport, we are now confident that the foundation is well laid for us to continue that process. As such we will be launching our Under- 17 competition in 2017 with a senior competition actively in the embryonic stage. We are confident that the model of youth first will ultimately drive the process of making the sport the sport of choice within the parish for adults in years to come. We were fortunate to secure sponsorship for the Under -13 competition because our sponsors, like us, believe that the model is right and also that our vision for the sport will ultimately add value to not just the sport but our nation at large,” Clarke stated.
