By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Just about two months ago the national beach volleyball team of Sierra Leone returned home from participating in one of Africa’s premier sporting competitions - The All Africa Games.
It was the only discipline from the Sierra Leone contingent to reach the quarter final stage of the games in Congo Brazzaville. That was just one of the demonstrations of the successes registered in volleyball since 2009.
Volley ball is still at its embryonic stage in Sierra Leone and for many part of the world, where it struggles to get attention from spectators, governments, and sponsors. But in Sierra Leone, despite all the odds, those behind the sport have stood their grounds. Sport is meant for recreation, excitement and entertainment. You want success in it as well, and volleyball has been given us all that in the last 5 or 6 years, all thanks to the steadfastness of these people.
But our seemingly unquenchable obsession with football poses a constant threat to not just volleyball but all other active sporting disciplines. The gap between volleyball and football is so wide that no one can imagine it closing up anytime soon and probably that is understandable, taking into consideration that volleyball became really competitive in the country from 2009; that was one or two decades later when football had already made its mark.
Mahmoud Turay, a football fan, has had his attention directed to volley ball over the last few years. And he says it’s because of the successes they have registered within the period.
“Frankly I have a bias towards volley ball these days because their success has caught my attention,” he told Politico.
Training on makeshift courts
The focus in this piece might be on volleyball but most of the issues raised here are common problems faced by the other sporting disciplines in the country.
In the current unfavourable climate created by maladministration of sports in the country, you have to give the credit to the Sierra Leone Volley Ball Association (SLVBA) for not falling in to the spotlight for the wrong reasons. It is clear that the wrath of football is whipping other sports and probably volley ball has been just lucky not to be affected.
Volley Ball is divided in to two kinds – Indoor volley ball, and beach volley ball.
Florence Amara, a retired volleyball player and sports writer, said the game is being starved of facilities and that’s hindering its progress.
Her concern is shared by many other stakeholders in the sector, both players and coaches. They lament that they have to train on makeshift courts just to keep themselves fit.
Indoor volleyball can be played on hard surfaces in any enclosure, even though recent developments have seen courts fitted with Sports Court Floor to make it soft. But in Sierra Leone, the players mostly have access to the hard surface court because the best such facility is available at the National Stadium Volley Ball Court which has many other issues. For example, playing under floodlights has become a normal trend, especially at international competitions. The SLVBA court doesn’t have them.
For beach volley ball it is an altogether different situation, because it is played strictly on a sandy court. This explains why it is most popular in the Western Area in this country because such a condition is only readily available at the beaches. In the provinces, they have to fill a 40-cm-deep court with sand.
“It is easy to set up pitches for the beach volleyball players to train but volleyball itself does not have any standard court apart from the court in the National Stadium,” Amara, who is also an executive member of the SLVBA, told Politico.
Regardless of this dire picture, Beach Volleyball has enjoyed tremendous successes. In September 2015, the male team was ranked 6th in Africa and 15th in the world, and the female team was ranked 10th in Africa and 25th worldwide. Both teams have also won a handful of trophies and with all this combined, it is fair to say that after a very long time we have had a sporting discipline that can competitively compete on the global front. This is a massive achievement for the athletes and a bit of a breather for all sports fans in Sierra Leone, considering the numerous frustrations they have been going through.
Inconsistent funding
Beach volleyball has also commendably enjoyed a lot of sponsorship, mainly from the telco company, Africell. Today it is played in all four regions across the country.
Even though it is struggling a bit, considering the fact that the players cannot easily access beaches in the provinces, but the rate of participation from the regions is a positive sign that the game has grown. Beach volley ball is in fact the only one among the two that has hosted international qualifiers and competitions in the country.
Generally, government sponsorship for volley ball as a whole is still a bit short, and for beach volley ball it is described as “inconsistent” by Sorie Kamara, Director of Beach Volleyball and national coach of the SLVBA.
Many people believe that the future of sports in Sierra Leone is in the next generation. For this reason many are concerned that if volleyball as a game must grow then the focus should be in growing the game among the younger generation.
In response to this, SLVBA has launched the next big thing in the volleyball game: the African Dream Project, which focuses on growing the game in schools.
SLVBA officials told Politico that training of Physical Health Education teachers had already been conducted and that in early 2016 they were expecting to see the implementation face set off.
The project was designed to run for four years and it cost USD30, 000, bankrolled by the Federation of International Volley Ball.
For a sport that is so underfunded in this country, such a project is sure to take the game to another height in the coming years.
(c) Politico 14/01/16
