Mikia Kalati
THE new Volleyball season roars into life this weekend in Leribe where all the 16 teams in both the male and female categories will be in action.
According to the Lesotho Volleyball Association (LVA) public relations officer, Buller Phalatse, it’s all system go for the first round of games of the new season which will be staged at Green Spikes Ground on Saturday and Sunday.
He also said that his association is currently in negotiations with their sponsors, Metropolitan Lesotho as their current three-year contract ends this year.
The insurance company started off the partnership by giving LVA M60 000 for sponsorship in the first year before increasing the sponsorship to M80 000 in the following two year.
“The A division’s new season gets underway this weekend in Hlotse and all the teams will be in action in both the male and female categories,” Phalatse said.
“Each category has eight teams and Redskins are the defending champions in both categories.”
The volleyball association has over the last two years experienced power struggles, however, Phalatse said the infighting did not affect their league and the teams.
“The problems that we had affected the executive committee and the league continued normally.
“Regarding the sponsorship, we still have Metropolitan Lesotho as our sponsors though we are in the last year of the deal. We have already started the negotiations for an extension.
“Somehow, the administrative troubles that had affected the association as a whole especially last year. It was not a busy year like the other years but we are confident things will improve as the sticking issues that caused the problems have now been solved.
“At the moment, we have also been active in the ongoing intervarsity games to ensure that we give them the support they require.
“Our biggest goal is to see our sport developing especially at the youth level and also to see to it that we participate in international tournaments.
“An example is that of our under-20 team which recently participated in a beach volleyball tournament in Mozambique. So, we are hard at work with development through beach volleyball especially at the youth level. That’s where our focus is,” he said.
Phalatse also said Redskins, who represented the country in the Zone6 Club Championships in Botswana last year in both the male and female categories, performed badly due to internal problems including funding.
