5 Male, Female Volleyball Players Hit Open Camp in Kaduna

5 Male, Female Volleyball Players Hit Open Camp in Kaduna

Zainab Tanimu

Kaduna, North-West, NIGERIA

A total of 75 players have converged on Kaduna for the Nigerian Volleyball Federation  (NVBF) open camp,  aimed  at discovering new players for the national  U-20 and U-21 male and female teams respectively.

The players comprising  40 males and 35 females,  began camping  on Monday at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Indoor Sports Hall,  Murtala Mohammed Square,  Kaduna.

Speaking to newsmen at the venue on Tuesday, Technical Director NVBF,  Mr. Martins Melandie said that those in camp will be  guided by six seasoned  coaches.

He said that a lot of progress  was being made by the NVBF in terms of  talents development.

“We are making good progress.  Those that distinguish themselves will be selected  and serve as feeder  for the national  team,” he said.

Speaking further,  he said that they will be spending  one week on camp.

“We are staying  for one week.  After that we go into closed  camp  in late July or early  August,” he added.

He explained that those selected from the ladies  will make up the squad that will represent Nigeria in a continental outing billed for Kenya in August.

On how many  players will scale through to the closed camping,  he said that 20 each will be picked.

While fielding questions from newsmen,  female head coach, Musa Baba Musa  expressed  delight that the the prospective players are talented.

“We were able to get the players  through the league recently. We will harness and groom them for international  standards,” he assured.

For the male head  coach, Elishama Elam, the present board of the NVBF is making a lot of  players develop interest in the game.

“I have to give kudos to present board  of NVBF for motivating players to develop  interest in  playing the game,” he said.

The camp which opened on Monday,  is completely sponsored by the NVBF.