MOST BARBADIAN MEN share the common dream of one day fathering a son. That dream becomes even more significant when that son plays a sport that the father loves or played himself.
Andrew Culpepper enjoyed that great thrill 17 years ago when he combined with former Barbados captain and setter Valmay Stapleton to produce Andriy Stapleton. With two parents having spent all of their teenage and adult life playing volleyball, it was little surprise when Andriy took up the sport in first form at Christ Church Foundation.
However, like most children, Andriy, with a corrupt spelling of the name of one of the great Russian volleyball players, ran the entire gamut of games. He was a member of the Wesley Hall cricket team and he was also a member of the Barbados swim team representing the island at the Goodwill Games.
Andriy, who is currently the Barbados junior volleyball captain, abandoned cricket and later gave up swimming when he was bitten by the volleyball bug which had infected his father as an Ellerslie Schoolboy and his mother as a St Leonard’s student so many years ago.
Representing Foundation in basketball did not provide the excitement and achievement which Andriy sought and which he found when he naturally turned out for Deacons’ division three team which included former Barbados and Caribbean great Elwyn Oxley.
“I guess that growing up around volleyball it was only natural that I would play the game. And with motivation from my parents and Elwyn I discovered that I really love the sport and they continue to help me to get even better,” said Andriy.
However, getting even better comes with a price of pressure from his dad who is not only a National Sports Council coach but who had become a standout player for Deacons and Barbados after representing England’s junior team.
“I mark Andriy a lot harder than the other players that I coach. I want to see him excel and certainly play better and achieve a lot more than I did in the sport. But I spend a lot of time talking to him to ensure that he would not turn out like a lot of other sportspersons in having the ability but allowing arrogance to affect their growth and success,” said Andrew.
Even so, Andrew was willing to admit that Andriy had achieved a lot more than he had done at the same age. Last year Andriy led Barbados’ juniors to the Caribbean Volleyball Championships crown in Trinidad and Tobago while capturing the MVP, Best Server and Best Digger awards. Andriy then went off to the Norceca Juniors in the United States to be voted Best Spiker.
With their vision set on obtaining a scholarship and a professional contract, both Andriy and his dad are focused on the task at hand.
“I want to continue training hard to be a complete player since I am hoping to get a scholarship to the US. Of course, my ultimate goal is to become a professional playing the sport that I love and making a living from it,” said Andriy.
Andrew, with a more systematic view, has been training Andriy to play almost every position on the court. “We both want the scholarship and the professional contract so it is important that Andriy can play any position so that he can fit in or adjust to whatever demands a team may have.
“Right now I am very happy with where Andriy has reached and that joy comes from the fact that he has achieved so much in the sport that I love,” Andrew said.
