NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 2 – National women’s volleyball team head coach Paul Bitok believes the upcoming resumption of women’s volleyball league has come too soon for his charges who participated at the World Championships in the Netherlands in September.
Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) on Monday released fixtures for the fourth leg of the national league, set for November 11-15 in Mombasa.
However, Bitok believes the latest turn of events puts many of the national team players at risk of injuries, which may disrupt preparations for next year’s international assignments.
“Of course, there is nothing much we can do…the teams have to honour the fixtures released by the federation. However, in my opinion…as I said before… the players are really tired, especially those who participated in the World Championships and played a number of friendlies before we went to the Netherlands,” Bitok said.
He added: “And, now, we have another tough competition in the form of playoffs. In addition, we have a lot of competitions next year, that is the Africa Cup of Nations, All Africa Games and Olympics qualifiers.”
Subsequently, the gaffer called for a rethink of the league schedule, noting that it makes little sense for teams to play one game per month as this negates efforts to raise the standards of volleyball in the country.
“I have always spoken of the need to change the way we run our national league. It does not make sense to have teams playing once per month because this means they spend most of the time idle with no competition. In my opinion, volleyball matches should be played weekly to provide players with exposure and constant competition. How do we expect a volleyball coach, for instance, to be feted for an award when matches are being held scarcely as we are seeing right now?” Bitok posed.
The longstanding coach, who has also had a stint as the Rwandese national tactician, is expected to vie for the vice-president’s seat during KVF’s national elections, which has been pushed three months further.
Bitok was speaking at Nairobi Safari Club during the launch of an initiative by Sports Journalists Association of Kenya (SJAK) and StarTimes Kenya in which the best coaches of the month will be feted with Kes 100,000 and a StarTimes 55-inch TV set.
He applauded the ‘Coach of the Month’ award scheme, describing it as a masterstroke that will push many coaches across the sporting sector to perform their duties with gusto.
“I appreciate all those who came up with the idea to fete coaches for the hard work they do in developing players. We have seen previous times when teams come back to the country after a successful outing but it is only the players that are awarded and recognized while the coaches are forgotten,” Bitok said.
Speaking at the same event, StarTimes Media Kenya CEO Hanson Wang expressed the company’s excitement at collaborating on such a noble initiative to grow Kenyan sports.
“We are re-establishing our partnership with SJAK to reward excellence in sports having had a similar initiative between 2017 and 2018. As a brand, our commitment here today is that we will continue to invest in mutually beneficial sports initiatives in our strategic effort to recognize sports excellence and as a way of giving back to the society we serve through our pay television service,” Wang said.
SJAK president Chris Mbaisi said the sports industry cannot grow without the empowerment of coaches.
“Enhancing sport performance remains an important element of coaching. Athletes need a coach who can effectively guide their technical, tactical, and physical development to help them improve at their sport. Coaches play a pivotal role in this regard, we therefore thank StarTimes for their unswerving efforts, which we believe will take sports to the next level,” he said.
