KVF sets up youth development centres
The Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) has set up six youth development centres in the country.
These centres will act as training camps to upcoming players aged between 14-20, to help nurture talents for the local professional clubs and national team(s), according to KVF’s Youth Development Secretary and the Program’s Coordinator David Kilundo.
“Our main interest is to impart onto these promising youngsters the basics of playing volleyball, which has been lacking in our senior players. This is a long term project that will ultimately improve the standards of our game,” Kilundo said.
The centres will be based at Kwanthanze High School, Lugulu Girls, Malava Girls, AIC Kosirai Girls, Kabula High School and Tulwo High School, which are renowned as best performers in this discipline at the Secondary school games.
KVF and these learning institutions will cater for the accommodation, feeding and other logistics of the more than 500 students selected for this project that will primarily run during the school holidays.
INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENT
Coaches Paul Muthinja, Tairus Nderitu, Joseph Baraza, Moses Lokorito, Joseph Waiganjo, Sammy Kerongo and William Kemboi have been commissioned by the national body to spearhead this project and will be supervised by Kenya Prisons and national women team coach David Lung’aho, who doubles up as the federation’s technical director.
KVF vice chairman Martin Makokha added that talents from this program will be among the first to be considered for national team duty when the opportunities arise.
The launch of this project comes in the wake of inconsistent results by the national youth teams in international assignments in recent times.
Despite Kenya being considered a volleyball powerhouse on the continent, the national U-20 women team missed out on a World Championships berth after losing to Egypt and Algeria in the African Championships staged in Cairo earlier in February.
The U-23 women team also failed to win a game at the World Championships that was staged in Mexico last year.