VOLLEYBALL: Nimrod North West Holiday Volleyball Clinic Attracts over 120 Students Participation

  VOLLEYBALL:  Nimrod North West Holiday Volleyball Clinic Attracts over 120 Students Participation

Zainab Tanimu

Kaduna, North-West, NIGERIA 

As the 3^rd edition of Nimrod North West Holiday Volleyball Clinic came to a close on Wednesday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium Kaduna, air of excitements filled the air as over 120 students participants and sports fans trooped out to have a final glimpse of the high spirited players display their skills to the admiration of the gathering before the final whistle of the closing ceremony.

The participants both boys and girls, aged between 0 to 18 were drawn from five states in North West geo-political zone of the country. Namely, Kaduna, Katsina,  Zamfara,  Sokoto and Kano state respectively.

The President of the Nigeria Volleyball Federation, (NVBF) and Zonal Representative on the board, Engineer Musa Nimrod while fielding questions from newsmen after the closing ceremony expressed joy and satisfaction on the successful hosting of the event.

Engr. Nimrod, the sponsor of the clinic said,

“I am really very happy because from the record we have over 130 children who participated and over 15 facilitators under the coordination of our national coach Abdallah. I am really very excited.

“The joy I feel today seeing children of 4yrs, 5yrs coming out means there is something great in this country that we are missing and l want to say that Nigeria as a country, we really need to tap our potentials.

“I was privileged to attend the House of Reps. National Summit on Sports and it was all on grass root development. I believe this is what we are talking about”. He said.

While he called for private sector’s participation as a means of taking sports to a greater height, he emphasized on the need to catch them young in order to groom them for better performance.

“I want to request that next year, private sectors are invited to come and also participate because these are little children. We should try to impact on their lives. This is what l believe in.

“Life should not just be about amassing wealth and building houses, No! What have you planted in them?

We need to impact on the little ones so that when we become old and can barely walk, they would be the ones to support us. That is the passion l have.  I have passion for the Grass root. It is what l believe in”.  He added.

The Engineer expressed optimism for something bigger in the next edition.

” I look forward to greater participation next year with over 200  in attendance,” he said.

Speaking, the Zonal Coordinator North West, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development,  Mr.  Olusola Luke said that from the interest generated, they expect the kids to take the stories to their homes so that next year, the clinic would attract a larger crowd.

“Right now some of these kids are in academies where they are being groomed.  We have coaches here to study them and they would improve,” he added.

He called on other Zonal Representatives to emulate Engineer Nimrod for all round sports development.

Olusola expressed hope that the next edition would attract support from corporate organizations.

“We have made contacts and expecting to reach out to corporate organizations to partner us for next editio. ” He added.

Speaking on how the kids were nurtured, Assistant Coordinator of the clinic, Coach Suleiman Hassan said the children were exposed to the rudiments of the game the outcome which he described as encouraging.

“We started from teaching them   service down to overhead pass.  Once that’s done you go to attack and defense.

Hassan is of the hope that coaches of various states would take the campaign to schools.

“Coaches from schools are here. We have them from different states in the North West.  Our coaches from the states will take the campaign there”.

As to the future of volleyball game, he has this to say.

“We are creating more awareness.  I believe volleyball can overtake football in the future. This is because it doesn’t need much players or equipment. Volleyball has been lagging behind because of lack of publicity,” he submitted.

El-selim Musa an SS 2 student from Amazing College Kano is 14years old. He anxiously looks forward to the next edition.

“I am grateful for this opportunity.  In the future, most of us would become great players.

We are hoping to come back next year.  We have shown what we can do and to our friends that are not here, they should come and learn too.

A ten years old female participant, Faith Ismail, from Essence International College Kaduna, said they have learnt a lot.

“We learnt a lot about volleyball. I learnt how to throw ball, I learnt how to bounce the ball and I am eagerly looking forward to telling my friends to come next year,” she added.