Beach brightens volleyball outlook for 2023 | Sports

In a late-season run in regional tournaments in 2022, Jamaica took the first step towards qualifying for the 2024 Olympics in beach volleyball. Jamaica Volleyball Association (JaVA) President Jacqueline Cowan wants to build on that success. She aims to spread beach volleyball into schools.

Jamaica was busy late last year on a regional Beach Tour, and raised its North, Central America and Caribbean (NORCECA) rankings sufficiently for its men’s and women’s teams to compete in the first round of Olympic qualifications. The men vaulted up from number 18 to 11, second in the Caribbean, with our ladies zooming up from number 18 to the number 10 slot.

“Because of where we finished at the end of November, we were able to participate in the first round of Olympic qualification, both men and women, and the second round will be in December, so we have to finish in the top 12 to be able to participate in the next round”, Cowan said on Thursday.

“There are three rounds, and they have to get to all three rounds. So first hurdle, we’ve done the first,” she underlined.

After COVID-19 lockdowns dominated her first full year as JaVA president, Cowan is looking up.

“I feel really, really, really good, especially coming out of what happened with beach last year. Actually, we’re planning local tournaments. The first one we’re planning is in January, February but we don’t have any details on that yet, but we really realise now that we can actually expand the sport. We get a lot of phone calls in terms of how we can help.”

A school beach volleyball event is on her agenda.

“One of the things that we really want to do is introduce beach volleyball into schools, because we realise our senior programme does well. We’re not so good on the youth side and this is something we want to concentrate on,” the president resolved.

Also on the agenda is the Caribbean Senior Championships.

“The Caribbean Senior tournament is supposed to be held this year, in the last quarter of the year. We’re waiting to see what the schedule looks like and that is where we’re focusing indoors,” Cowan said.

Deferred from late 2022, the association’s club league will start shortly. “Club league, we didn’t get started as we didn’t have enough clubs who were ready to play. Thankfully, toward the end of the year, we had more clubs so we have now seven clubs who have stated they will be able to play. So we’re timing that to start at the end of January, going into February,” she outlined.

High-school competition resumed last February.

“Everybody is rearing to go,” she said to describe the mood of the volleyball fraternity. “Everybody is really upbeat and ready to go,” she emphasised.