Anchovy shock champs Irwin in primary/prep school volleyball

BY PAUL BURROWES Observer writer

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Anchovy Primary announced their favourites status Thursday sweeping through the first round of the North West Zone in the second staging of the JaVA Primary/Prep School Volleyball competition.

Most notably, the Latoya Williams-coached Anchovy defeated defending champions Irwin Primary 15-10, 15-9 in the feature match at Sam Sharpe Teachers College in Granville, Montego Bay.

Led by last year's MVP Okean Minto, Anchovy also beat newcomers Catherine Hall Primary and Chetwood Primary 15-6, 15-7 and 15-3, 15-8, respectively.

In other results, Irwin got by Chetwood 15-12, 15-3, and Catherine Hall 15-4, 15-7, while in battle of newcomers Catherine Hall overcame Chetwood 15-11, 14-16, 12-10.

The second round of the North West Zone will get under way next week Tuesday at Irwin Primary, starting at 9:00 am.

Five schools are taking part in the North West Zone, including Caronaldi Avenue Primary.

Schools development manager Andre Neil, who is also coach of reigning champions Irwin Primary, has expressed pleasure that the competition has finally got under way.

"We had hoped to start the competition in January, however a number of factors prevented that. Nonetheless, the JaVA is proud to have overcome enough of the challenges to the point of getting the competition off the ground. We wanted to be in a position to offer the children and the participating schools better rewards for their efforts, but we will not allow that inability to deter us from our efforts to have our athletes acquiring the basic skills of volleyball before they enter high school.

"We cannot expect to seriously compete in international tournaments with players who were first introduced to the game at age 15. So despite the lack of sponsorship at this time we have decided to continue to do what we can," Neil pointed out.

Matches are best of three sets, each played to 15 points.

All teams will play each other in three rounds of competition, with the top teams from each zone advancing to the National Finals at the JaVA Volleyball facility at the National Stadium.

The primary/prep school competition also involves teams from East, East Central, West, and North Central Zones.

Zone and national champions will win trophies and medals, with an MVP trophy for a player from each zone and at the national finals.

Irwin's Primary Nicola Winter (foreground), serves off round one of the North West Zone of the JaVA Primary/Prep School Volleyball competition on Thursday at Sam Sharpe Teacher's College in Granville, Montego Bay against newcomers Chetwood Primary. Irwin Primary are the defending champions.