Volleyball boss cautious about Omicron

If the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus becomes widespread, it could deliver a hammer blow to national life and sport. That’s the worry that occupies the mind of Jacqueline Cowan, president of the Jamaica Volleyball Association (JaVA). According to the JaVA president, the danger threatens all sports, not just volleyball.

Mindful that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a shutdown of sport in 2020, Cowan is fretful. “Whether the Government closes down, I don’t know. That’s my biggest fear but, at the end of the day, you know that COVID is here,” she said recently.

“How we are actually able to manoeuvre within that space is going to be critical, and each sport will have to look and see what it is that is happening with that sport internationally, taking a cue from its international body, and liaise with the Government here to see how we can actually continue the sport, or else, not just my sport, but all our sports will die and we will be left behind.”

Her association received approval for the resumption of local volleyball in November and is working to restart club and high-school competition. JaVA believes these measures will facilitate the rebuilding that the sport now requires. Speaking of the damage done by the period of non-activity from March 2020, she said, “It has set us back from a development point of view.”

As a member of the executive of CAZOVA, the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association, the JaVA president is part of an effort to jump-start regional competition while keeping all concerned safe and healthy.

DIFFICULT GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES

“We’re in the process now of trying to figure out which countries would be able to host and which countries would be able to participate,” she reported of a recent CAZOVA meeting. The 2017 Caribbean Senior Championships were held in Kingston, but Cowan reckons it might be difficult for Jamaica to invite its neighbours here under the current circumstances. “We know that to host might be difficult, looking at the protocols we’re required to have as set out by ODPEM, we in Jamaica. So it might be easier for us to travel and cheaper but, at the end of the day, some of the countries that have opened up really don’t have a comprehensive COVID protocol,” she observed.

“So we have to be mindful of that also,” she concluded.

The Jamaica Basketball Association president Paulton Gordon has voiced his own concerns and made an appeal to the members of the sporting fraternity across the island. “Please abide by the protocols as dictated by the Ministry of Health and the authorities. We have to beat this in a collective way,” he beseeched.

Hubert Lawrence