Olympic board appointment could be fillip for volleyball – JAVA boss
Published:Sunday | January 21, 2024 | 12:10 AMOrane Buchanan - Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Volleyball Association (JAVA), Jacqueline Cowan, believes her appointment to the board of the Olympic Programme Commission will have a positive impact on the growth and development of the sport on local soil.
“I feel honoured to be on the commission. Representing Jamaica at the international level is always good and you can actually contribute, not only at the international level, but use the experience that you get to grow the sport in Jamaica,” said Cowan.
The experienced sports administrator explained that the commission will be tasked with a plethora of things, which includes making sure the Olympic programme remains relevant to the younger audience while maximising the functionality of sporting venues.
“The commission is tasked with doing analyses of both the summer and winter Olympic Games and see how we can advance the different sports that we have. Also, we will be looking at how we can add sports and maximise venues and see how we can make adjustments. The basics now will be how are we able to do this without increasing cost?” Cowan explained.
In her capacity as the president of JAVA, Cowan, while happy with the state of the sport in Jamaica, believes a lot more work needs to be done.
“I’m pleased that last year we were able to win the women’s senior championships in the Caribbean for the first time. However, we still have a lot to do in terms of developing at the primary school level because if we’re not able to transition our athletes, then we won’t have a senior team,” she said.
Recently, both the senior men’s and women’s teams climbed in the latest rankings. The men are now ranked at 16th in the region while the women have climbed to 10th.
According to Cowan, plans are afoot to resume volleyball at the primary school level after the ravages done to it by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We had over a hundred schools participating in our primary schools’ competition, COVID stymied that but I do have a meeting scheduled with Insports to see how we can have a partnership to see how we can actually develop our primary schools.”