Forget about Crop-Over! The women’s senior national volleyball team is hard at work preparing for the 2010 Caribbean Volleyball Championships which will be held in Paramaribo, Suriname, from August 5 to 15.Less than a week after returning from the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, coach Andrew Brathwaite is back at work with the former champions.With the gymnasium not easily available at this time, the team has put in a few training sessions in the hall of the St Leonard’s Boys’ School.“We only came back home on Saturday and we had a session on Monday night. We understand what the situation is relative to the gymnasium at this time, but whenever the floor is available, we have been able to get it,” Brathwaite said.“We had some lights set up at the beach and we were training a lot at the beach. We have found alternative venues.”Brathwaite’s job is to get the team ready to face main rivals Trinidad and Tobago who have forced them into the runners-up spot for the past two Caribbean Championships.The teams met at CAC and Trinidad were victorious again 25-16, 25-23, 25-20. Brathwaite described that tour as “an interesting experience”.Despite losing matches to the Dominican Republic (25-6, 25-9, 25-6); Costa Rica (25-19, 25-18, 25-11); Nicaragua (25-19, 25-21, 25-20) and Guatemala (26-24, 21-25, 20-25, 25-17, 15-10), he said the Dominican Republic were the only powerhouse they faced and all of the other could have been beaten.However, they took some lessons from the tournament and would be working on making improvements during training.“I think that we did quite a bit with regards to the whole team-building exercise. We have a number of players who were not with us last years and it is taking a while to get there, but people are starting to understand each other,” Brathwaite said.“Everyone is committed to the Caribbean Championships. Trinidad looks like a handful but we will give it our best. We know what we need to do and we will put our all into it.”In addition to Trinidad and hosts Suriname, St Lucia, The Bahamas, Martinique and Guadeloupe are also expected to take part.Team Barbados: Janelle Chase-Mayers (captain), Sharon Bovell, Melissa Branford, Avara Brown, Sharlene Browne, Thonya Joseph, Julia Lewis, Anicia Wood, Shari Matthews, Tamar Maynard; Andrew Brathwaite (head coach), Lerone Knight (assistant coach), Shirley Hoyte-Boyce (manager).
