02 Mar 2020

The beach commission held a sponsor and media engagement at the Tropika Beach Volleyball Complex in Molapo Crossing last Thursday to launch its development plan, build excitement, awareness and engage with potential sponsors.

Presenting the development plan for 2020, which was put together by the coaches and the commission, beach commission marketing consultant, Tumelo Lekolwane said people got surprised when they heard of beach volleyball in Botswana as there were no beaches in the country.

He explained that just because it was a beach game, it did not necessarily have to be played in a beach but anywhere with sand.

Lekolwane noted that beach volleyball was not new in Botswana, having started in 2014 and administered by BVF.

He also noted that they have had teams representing the country continentally and internationally, and were working to establish categories of players at all levels, including children, adolescents and the youth.

“We believe that we can achieve anything we want looking at the past achievements we have had. When we established beach volleyball in 2014, only two males took part in Zone IV competitions held in Mozambique and obtained 3^rd and 4^th places,” he said.

He said the under 21 teams participated in the 2019 continental cup.

The commission, he said, prided itself in having held the first beach volleyball referees clinic. It was attended by 15 coaches.

Lekolwane said they were aiming to increase awareness of beach volleyball in the community and improve its fan engagement.

“The commission is also working on increasing participation and attendance of events, utilising new technology based innovation as well as creating new content for all media,” he said.

He said they were practicing the team for continental championships billed for next month.

He noted that the team won the first leg of the qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic, but still had a long way to go before booking tickets to Tokyo.

“To promote our sport, we are looking into working with local producers to promote their goods while they help us disseminate our information.

For a sport that is the second largest after football in our country, both the modern and beach volleyball need all the coverage and support it can get to keep it alive,” he said. ENDs