Akim Bushe of BIG South East Port-of-Spain (BIG SE­PoS) club has been ap­point­ed cap­tain of T&T's 12-mem­ber se­nior men's vol­ley­ball team, which de­parts Fri­day (Ju­ly 17) from 3 pm for Willem­stad, Cu­ra­cao, to con­test the in­au­gur­al Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CA­ZO­VA) Men’s Fi­nal-Four Cham­pi­onship at the Sala Er­rol Rooi Sen­tro De­porti­vo Ko­r­soul in Brie­ven­gat.

The four-team tour­na­ment, which al­so fea­tures ten-time re­gion­al kings Bar­ba­dos, for­mer win­ners Ba­hamas, and host Cu­ra­cao, the lat­ter be­ing the de­fend­ing Caribbean cham­pi­ons, runs from to­mor­row Sat­ur­day (Ju­ly 18) to Mon­day (Ju­ly 20).

At the end of which, the top two teams will con­test the gold medal, while the third and fourth will com­pete for bronze as they go af­ter valu­able Fédéra­tion In­ter­na­tionale de Vol­ley­ball (FIVB) rank­ing points.

Coached by T&T Vol­ley­ball Fed­er­a­tion (TTVF) tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor and men’s and women’s head coach Gideon Dick­son, the T&T men's team com­pris­es a bal­ance of youth and ex­pe­ri­ence.

In ad­di­tion to Bushe, who has been a mem­ber of the se­nior team for more than ten years, Spain-based Daynte Stew­art, Bran­don Legall, Mar­lon "Wal­do" Phillip and Mar­ley David­son are the ex­pe­ri­enced mem­bers of the squad, with the emerg­ing tal­ents of Un­der-21 and U-23 play­ers led by Jahreef Miguel, the "Most Valu­able Play­er" at the last CA­ZO­VA Ju­nior Cham­pi­onship, along with his team­mates Janeiro Ather­ley, Michael Bur­kette, and Josi­ah Jankey.

The oth­er mem­bers of the team in­clude Tris­ton Mar­tinez, Michael Mc­Carthy and Ay­den Austin, the lat­ter, the first play­er from To­ba­go to be named to a se­nior men's vol­ley­ball team.

Speak­ing on the eve of the team's de­par­ture, Dick­son said he was very sat­is­fied with the com­po­si­tion of his team as well as their prepa­ra­tions.

He said, "The team has a good mix of youth and ex­pe­ri­ence with over 60 per cent of the squad hav­ing come through the re­cent na­tion­al un­der-21 and un­der-23 na­tion­al teams, which is a good in­di­ca­tor that we are re­build­ing fol­low­ing our sixth-place fin­ish at the last Se­nior CA­ZO­VA Cham­pi­onships."

Look­ing ahead to the tour­na­ment, Dick­son ad­mit­ted that his ex­pec­ta­tions for his play­ers are very high based on their skill set and their ca­pac­i­ty to per­form at a high lev­el.

"We don't ex­pect any easy match­es as we see all our op­po­nents as be­ing for­mi­da­ble, but the coach­ing staff is very con­fi­dent in the abil­i­ty of our play­ers and once we ex­e­cute well in each game, then we have a very good chance to come out on top."

T&T was pre­vi­ous­ly crowned Se­nior CA­ZO­VA cham­pi­on in 2010, 2014, and 2017 but had to set­tle for the sixth spot last time af­ter beat­ing Guade­loupe 25-17, 25-22, 29-31, and 25-20 at the Kendal GL Isaacs Na­tion­al Gym­na­si­um in New Prov­i­dence, Nas­sau, Ba­hamas, last Au­gust.

How­ev­er, by miss­ing out on a top-three fin­ish, it marked the first time since 2002 that T&T had failed to se­cure a podi­um fin­ish in the tour­na­ment, hav­ing end­ed in the run­ner-up spot in 2006 and 2012 while they got bronze in 2004, 2008, 2018, and 2023.

In the fi­nal, Cu­ra­cao cap­tured their first CA­ZO­VA vol­ley­ball crown with an in­vin­ci­ble run capped off by its 25-21, 25-23, and 25-16 vic­to­ry over hosts the Ba­hamas, while Ja­maica end­ed a bit­ter tour­na­ment for the oust­ed 2023 kings, Suri­name, as the Ja­maicans grabbed the bronze in a bruis­ing con­test, 25-23, 33-31, 29-31, and 29-27.

As part of the prepa­ra­tions for the event, CA­ZO­VA pres­i­dent Mush­taque Mo­hammed con­duct­ed an in­spec­tion vis­it to Cu­ra­cao in May and ex­pressed his sat­is­fac­tion with the progress made.

Dur­ing the vis­it, Mo­hammed held suc­cess­ful meet­ings with the Or­gan­is­ing Com­mit­tee, the Pres­i­dent of the Olympic Com­mit­tee, and Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials.

Pres­i­dent Mo­hammed al­so ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to the Cu­ra­cao Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion Board and the Or­gan­is­ing Com­mit­tee for be­ing at an ad­vanced stage in their prepa­ra­tions for host­ing the first-ever CA­ZO­VA Fi­nal-Four tour­na­ment.

T&T team: Janeiro Ather­ley, Michael Bur­kette, Akim Bushe (cap­tain), Mar­ley David­son, Josi­ah Jankey, Bran­don Legall, Tris­ton Mar­tinez, Michael Mc­Carthy, Jahreef Miguel, Mar­lon Phillip, Daynte Stew­art (vice-cap­tain), Ay­den Austin.

Tech­ni­cal staff: Gideon Dick­son (coach), Daniel David (as­sis­tant coach), Kam­la El­cock (man­ag­er)

Tour­na­ment sched­ule

To­mor­row

T&T vs Bar­ba­dos, 6 pm

Cu­ra­cao vs Ba­hamas, 8 pm

Sun­day:

Morn­ing ses­sion

Ba­hamas vs Bar­ba­dos, 9 am

Cu­ra­cao vs T&T, 11 am

Evening ses­sion

Ba­hamas vs T&T, 6 pm

Cu­ra­cao vs Bar­ba­dos, 8 pm

Mon­day

Third place, 4 pm

Fi­nal, 7 pm