Coach Chong was confident Ja could win regional volleyball title

Jamaica’s women were ready. That’s the observation by Ricardo Chong, coach of the national team that won the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) championships late last month in Suriname.

Two weeks before the tournament, he felt, “the training sessions just kept getting better and better. The team looked like it was gelling together, really moving together as a team, each player supporting the other”.

Speaking in Kingston on Monday, Chong recalls that “after the first match against Barbados, it really just confirmed it, that we were there and they were in the right mindset to win”.

His impression was fortified when the ladies survived tight 3-2 matches against the hosts and favourites Trinidad and Tobago, in the first round.

“That little stretch within the tournament was a test of willpower, a test of mental strength, and testing the fact that we were physically ready,” Chong underscored.

Jamaica had never won the CAZOVA women’s title before but, on the day of the final, Coach Chong discerned a sense of calm in the squad. After discussing pre-match tactics, he added, “The last thing I said to them going out on the court was, ‘let’s make today the best day ever’. “

The Trinidadians fought all the way but, in the final set, Jamaica reached triple match point at 14-10. When the champions clawed three points back, Chong called a time out.

“I think I took a time out at 14-13 and told them to just calm down, ‘take a breath, we just need to get one point and it’s going to be ours’. Everybody took their breath, went back on the court and did what we needed to do,” the satisfied coach recounted.

DIFFICULT ROAD

The victory was due reward for the difficult road Jamaica took simply to get to Suriname.

“We were training all along. Two weeks before the tournament, our president called to tell us that there is no money to send us,” Chong recalled. “I think because of our really hard-working team manager, Cheryl Daley, we were able to get flights, because she was able to talk to two different airlines, and we juggled a few things, begged a few people to give us some tickets for the tournament, and we were able to get there,” the coach explained.

“So, it was a very difficult struggle,” he continued, “because, even when we were checking in for the first flight on July 20, we really hadn’t been issued the other tickets for the other flight to Suriname. That’s how down to the wire it was.”

Chong regards the CAZOVA victory as a milestone.

“It just felt like, for me, unfinished business because, when I was a player, I didn’t get the opportunity to win. So, now that I am a coach, and we won, it just feels like a little bit of a load off my shoulders,” he said.