29 Nov 2019

The partnership between Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) and an American company called Bring it Promotion (BIP) is reported to be producing positive results.

The duo entered into a partnership last year which aimed to promote the growth and development of volleyball in Botswana.

BIP is a full service volleyball travel agency with partners and staff across the globe. The company specialises in international volleyball tours and events as well as professional career development.

In an interview, BVF sports development officer, Peaceful Seleka confirmed that they were enjoying the benefits of their partnership as the company continued to organise international friendly games on an annual basis.

The company, he said, organised a tour for some universities to Botswana and during their stay, they would conduct coaching clinics in some schools across the country and play a series of games against senior ladies national team.

He explained that they agreed to partner with the company because it had a good record and contributed meaningfully in the development of volleyball globally.

Seleka said the company last year brought Hollard University to Botswana and this year they brought A5 which has a high standard in terms of volleyball to play against the senior ladies national team.

“We are very happy with the arrangement as our schools and national teams are benefiting a lot. This time we are preparing for Botswana Games scheduled for December this year, and some of our participants had an opportunity to learn new skills,” he added.

He also pointed out that the national teams had been struggling to qualify for major tournaments and believed that through the arrangement they could improve their performance and change the way they had been doing things.

Seleka revealed that they intend to explore if they could include men’s teams in the arrangement. He expressed disappointment that the coaching clinic for Maun schools did not materialise as planned because some logistics were not done.

But he stated that they managed to conduct one clinic with Mathiba Primary School, which is one of the Re Ba Bona Ha centre.

Meanwhile, the game between the senior ladies national team and A5 University was played as planned and the visiting team walloped Botswana 3-0.

A5 University coach, Gabriel Aramian gave credit to Botswana team, saying they had a lot of potential despite their loss. He said they gave his team a tough game and encouraged them to train more and develop their skills. He also thanked BVF for a warm reception, noting that the trip was a once life experience as they managed to appreciate the Botswana culture.

Senior ladies national team coach, Kabo Ntshinogang said the Maun game was the worst as compared to the previous games played in Gaborone and Serowe. 

He revealed that he thought his team would do better in servicing and blocking but that did not happen as tactically their rivals were better.

He attributed their poor performance to lack of training, saying the team had stayed long without training and players were rusty as they had gained weight hence they could not move fast.

Ntshinogang noted that the team needed to recover and start training harder, adding that “we need to work on our mentality to ready them for upcoming games.”

He also hailed their rivals for the good performance, noting that they would watch their videos as now they had the baseline to work on. Ends