It’s been a couple of months since the return of the national volleyball league following a prolonged period of inactivity. Now, Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) says signs are visible that the sport is already beginning to recover.
BVF Media Relations and Marketing Officer Mpho Tlhaselo, says the absence of league activity had a direct impact on the country’s participation in international competitions.
“The federation’s top priority was to get the league running again because without league activity, we could not prepare a national team. We felt this during the Olympic qualifiers when Botswana did not make it because we were coming from a long period of inactivity. BVF simply did not have a team that was ready to compete internationally,” Tlhaselo says.
Now, he believes the resumption of the national league has started to produce positive results. The federation managed to select two national teams to compete at the recent Ditsala International Cup.
“Since the national league resumed, we were able to gather players and select two teams for the Ditsala Tournament. The league helped us discover new talent, and those players were tested against Zambia, which is one of the top performing nations in our region.”
“One of our teams managed to beat Zambia and that showed us that our players are now getting into the right competitive shape because they are playing regularly again.”
The federation is now rebuilding momentum as it prepares to return to international competitions. Clubs have also become more confident as league activity has increased their visibility and attracted sponsorship opportunities.
“We are in the process of selecting the national team and clubs are feeling confident again. They believe players are now in shape to compete internationally,” the BVF Media Relations and Marketing Officer says.
Moving forward, the federation plans to encourage clubs to establish youth structures prior the federation’s plan to introduce Under 12 tournaments to strengthen grassroots development.
Despite the progress, Tlhaselo says sponsorship remains one of the federation’s biggest challenges. “The challenge is that all sporting codes are competing for the same sponsors, while many companies are facing economic challenges. Another issue is that some sponsors only come after results have been achieved instead of partnering with teams during the preparation stage, which is when support is needed the most.”
Looking ahead, Tlhaselo says ‘the BVF’s intention is to run the league with stability.’ “This year’s league has only one round. But from September, we want to introduce a full two rounds league that will run until May next year. We are also working on improving the federation’s visibility by launching a website to attract partners who can support different aspects of volleyball.”
