Primary stars

The girls of Wesley Hall Primary and the boys of Ifill School jumped for joy as they celebrated as first-time winners of the second annual National Primary Schools Volleyball Invitational Competition played this afternoon at the Wildey Gymnasium.

Wesley Hall Primary celebrate after winning the girls final against Deacons Primary.

Wesley Hall Primary won the two best of three final 15-12 and 15-12 against Deacons Primary who fought well but were unable to stop the King Street, St Michael school led by most valuable player Theanny Herbert-Mayers. She will be attending Christ Church Foundation in September and is certain to add to that school’s sports programme.

Rajae McCollin of Ifill School was adjudged most outstanding male volleyballer as he piloted his team to a 15-9 and 15-10 victory in the best of three sets showdown.

Ifill School captured the boys title against West Terrace Primary.

It was a good day for Wesley Hall who not only won the girls competition but finished third in the boys 15-5 against Deacons Primary – played over one set.

Physical education teacher Kwame Ramsay said he was elated with their overall performance and thanked former Barbados volleyballer and Charger club player Sharon Bovell for her dedication towards training the children.

Ramsay explained that going forward, they would look to build on this year’s success because there was a high level of interest at the school.

“We are ecstatic, I am very proud of the children, they worked extremely hard, and in terms of preparation, we met every Saturday morning and had the assistance of Sharon Bovell who did a phenomenal job. The children sacrificed their Saturday mornings, those who had examinations still showed up and gave a hundred percent every time they came to practice.

“We are going to harness this energy, and we are going to seek to get it to go further. We have children who were not able to compete in the tournament this year and who would have seen the other children play at lunchtime and wanted to play. So, we will seek to tap into those children and strengthen our team for next year,” Ramsay said.

The MVPs received a tablet each from PromoTech Inc, vouchers for Lucky Horseshoe and a volleyball each.

Meanwhile, the winning coaches collected day passes for Accra Beach hotel and Infinity on the Beach.

Ifill School’s boys team made principal Akil Ifill a happy man with a hard-fought 2-0 win over West Terrace Primary that ensured he received a day pass to Accra Beach hotel.

In the opening set Ifill School were six points ahead 7-1, and West Terrace Primary at that juncture broke the momentum and cut the deficit by four points as they fought with determination to ensure it came down to a one point [8-9] battle.

Both teams upped the level of their game at this stage with great on-court movement to ensure they fought for every point. Ifill, however, dug deep to secure the advantage and won 15-9 at the end of the opening set.

The pressure was on West Terrace Primary to respond, and they did so strongly with a 4-0 lead to commence the second set.

But once again Ifill School not to be counted out came from behind to tie the score 8-8 thanks to a few unforced errors made by West Terrace who suffered the consequences and lost in straight sets.

John Sampson, physical education teacher at Ifill School, was thrilled with the performance of his team.

“The students have worked hard throughout the entire term leading up to this competition. This is one competition we knew we would have showed up for performance wise. We took part in other competitions such as BICO [football], NAPSAC, and we did not do too well. But for the volleyball competition, we came in keen on winning. The students put in countless hours during and after school. So, we are happy, and we did this as a birthday gift to Mr Ifill, today is his birthday, and we present this win and championship to him,” Sampson said.

West Terrace Primary not only finished in the top two of the boys but also came third in the girls when they trounced Eden Lodge Primary 15-5 in a one set encounter.

Best server honours went to Azari Dallaway of West Terrace Primary and Amya Blaggrove of Wesley Hall Primary.

In addition to PromoTech, Chefette restaurant also contributed to making the second edition a success. 

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb