By: Joy Odor/Kaduna
The Third Edition of Volleyball for ‘All Holiday Clinic for Boys and Girls’ drawn from five states of the North-West, Nigeria has come to an end with 120 school children in participants, aged between 0-to-18 comprising Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kano States.
In an interview with newsmen after the official closing ceremony at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna State, on Wednesday, the 15th of August, 2018, the President of the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) and Zonal Representative of the Board, Engineer Musa Nimrod expressed joy for the success of the clinic.
Engineer Nimrod who also sponsored the clinic lamented the need to tap potentials talents from the grassroots in Nigeria and appealed to the private sector to come and participate to improve grassroots sports.
According to him, life is not just about amassing wealth and building houses, stressing the need to impact on the school children at young age while expressing optimism that the next the edition would be bigger.
“Life should not just be about amassing wealth and building houses, we need to impact on the little ones so that when we become old and can barely walk, they would be the ones to support us.
“I want to request that by next year, private sector should come and participate to improve grassroots sports competition. From the record we have, over 130 children participated and 15 facilitators under the co-ordination of our national coach Abdallah.
“I am optimism that the next edition would even be bigger and I look forward to greater participation with over 200 in attendances” he said.
Also speaking, the Assistant Co-ordinator of the Clinic, Coach Suleiman Hassan explained that the reason while volleyball has been behind in the past in Nigeria is lack of publicity.
According to him, with a good publicity and constant competitions like other games, volleyball would overtake other games, pointing out that volleyball is an interesting game which does not require too many people to play it, saying volleyball equipment are not costly unlike other games out there.
“Just put 2 sticks on the ground, net and a ball, volleyball is already to be played.
“We are creating more awareness. I believe volleyball can overtake football in the future. This is because it doesn’t need much players or equipment. Volleyball has been behind because of lack of publicity.
“The essence of the clinic is not for the kids to know volleyball basis but for them to know how to play the game and to carry volleyball round the town. We want the game to be played everywhere, in schools, worship places and public places. That is why we are doing this and l am so sure this children will carry the message to their states.
“We started from teaching them service, down to overhead pass, those are the major skills in volleyball and once that’s done you just go to attack and defense which is easy. So l am so sure the kids can play volleyball anywhere because they have gain the basses and it was a solid foundation we gave them.
“We have the students from different states in the North West. Our coaches from the states that are here, l believe they will carry the campaign over there. In Kaduna here, we have started moving round schools introducing the games “he submitted.
Contributing, the Zonal Co-ordinator North-West, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Olusola Luke said from the interest generated, they expect the students to take the stories to their homes so that next year the clinic would attract a larger crowd.
Mr. Luke who called on other Zonal Representatives to emulate Engineer Nimrod for all round sports development expressed hope that the next edition would attract support from corporate organisations.
