With the hopes of a revival of Volleyball within schools and getting the younger generation more involved as the Classic Ball Blasters in collaboration with the Guyana Volleyball Federation hosted the inaugural edition of the Mash Ramani School Competition at the National Gymnasium on February 20th ,2025.
The tournament saw the participation of six schools vying for supremacy and showcasing their abilities to pike the ball – Presidents college, North Georgetown Secondary, St, Rose‘s High school, St. Stanislaus College Annandale secondary ,Cyril Potter of Education.
.President of Guyana Volleyball Federation John Flores while speaking to media operatives divulged on the aim of the tournament and the hopes of expansion within the year to be done nationally.
Flores divulged “Well, the aim is really to build a good foundation for volleyball in general. As you know, the foundation is basically in schools.
So we hopefully want to expand this as we go on into the year. So that it could be done nationally. And the clubs could feed off of this foundation that we’re trying to build.
This is one of our strategic goals for volleyball this year, school volleyball. (0:39) I’m seeing a good number of students involved in the game.”
“Well, yes, this is just the first tournament. We want to expand it, so I think by mid-year we should have a bigger, more inclusive program. We also want to spread this in the interior locations. Shortly, the coach and I will be visiting a number of areas in the region.
Regions 2, 10, and 9, let them. The first regions we’re going to, to engage the school coaches and so on. And hopefully at the same time, get them to run a small tournament while we’re in there.”
With the tournament being played within schools he indicated the positive impact that it possesses on the overall aspects of the students.
Flores indicated “As you know, sportsmen generally improve academically playing sports. So, you’re hitting two balls with one, well, two things with one stone. When you play a sport, basically, physically and mentally, you’re basically thinking better.
So, it’s good for schools as they progress through their school career to play a game. So, we want to work with schools to build their own sports program.”
Flores divulged based on participation with in the hinterland communities that with a 2026 timeline that their will be a big tournament from what was started.
