The lo­cal vol­ley­ball com­mu­ni­ty was thrown in mourn­ing on Fri­day fol­low­ing the pass­ing of for­mer T&T ju­nior men's vol­ley­baller Ja­mal Black­burn who passed away on Thurs­day af­ter a long bat­tle with can­cer.

Black­burn, 32, who lived at #4 Munroe Road, Barataria was a mem­ber of Chal­lengers Vol­ley­ball Club, and

rep­re­sent­ed the na­tion­al ju­nior team along­side the likes of se­nior na­tion­al men's coach, Sean Mor­ri­son and Por­tu­gal-based mid­dle-block­er Marc-An­tho­ny Hon­ore un­der the guid­ance of Cu­ba-born coach Juan Car­los and Kan­hai Sir­joo at the Ju­nior Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CA­ZO­VA) Cham­pi­onship which was held in Mar­tinique in 2003.