Williams commends team’s performance despite falling short

The senior men’s volleyball coach, Carl Williams, says he is pleased with the effort put out by his players despite falling short in the finals for the recently concluded Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Championships in Grenada.
Antigua and Barbuda fell short by some three points in the finals to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the five-set thriller.
Williams, spoke highly of his players on The Good Morning JoJo Sports show.
“Listen, the guys would have worked really hard for about three months. We’ve had great nights, we’ve had rough nights. They went down there and went all out on the court and I am happy, I am satisfied with the effort. Just that we were so close… I think this is the first time that we are getting second place.
“To see the guys get so close, put it all out. I saw the tears after the game and for me I said, you know what, as a coach along with Dan [Girleanu] who played a pivotal role in our preparation, I am pleased.”
Williams, however, noted that players in the national set up are not technically sound. He believes this issue stems from the school program which he says focuses on one aspect of the game.
“In the school system everyone learns to spike but spiking is just one aspect of the game and we were not beaten by St. Vincent with spikes. We were beaten with people being able to combat the spike and come back at us, so I think in the school program they need to focus more on the all-round game instead of one aspect.
“Don’t get me wrong, most players for today one of the first things they learn is spike but the blocking, the passing and playing defense is very important.”
He said he believes that most of the blame falls on the clubs that do not take much time teaching the other fundamentals.
Williams concluded that despite the many issues as a group, they are looking at participating in regional invitational tournaments to help keep the national team active.
“In the past, we would play this year and then two years after but now because of the World Championships you’ll find us playing every year most of the time or every other year. But what we are discussing now as a group, where we said you know where we are not sure when the next tournament will be, rather than just sitting back, we will start putting funds together individually and then we would probably go to one of those invitationals they have around the Caribbean.”