TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 13, 2024.- The coaches of the eight teams that will compete in the NORCECA Girls’ U19 Continental Championship in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, are ready to face a new challenge from July 14 to 19.
The event, which is part of the qualification process for the age-group FIVB World Championship, will be streamed on Facebook Live Federación Hondureña de Voleibol
Gina Schmidt, Head Coach of Canada: ““Our preparation period was fairly short, but we have a great group of athletes, and it will be just a matter of how quickly we can get used to playing together. I can see us improving with each game of the tournament”.
Norka Latamblét, Head Coach of Cuba: “We are coming with a very young group, U17 players. We have had problems with training, but we are here to play with a good attitude, hoping that things will turn out as well as possible. We aim for the girls to project themselves for future competitions and for Cuba to achieve a better ranking as in previous years”.
Alexandre Ceccato, Head Coach of Dominican Republic: “Some players competed at the U19 continental and others at the U21, they have been training together for two weeks. The goal is to reach the semifinals and we are focused on doing so”.
Marcos Sugiyama, Head Coach of Honduras: “Honduras is very pleased to host another international event. The teams from Honduras for the underage categories are made up of players from a previous category. The team is mostly composed of players from last year’s U17 category. We are very eager to participate in the competition. We are motivated to play in front of our home crowd, for the players to be happy playing with the support of their families, which is an advantage for the team. I believe it will be a very important competition for the players”.
Ignacio Ramírez, Head Coach of Mexico: “We are bringing several U17 players, we want them to gain more experience since they will participate at the World Championship soon. Our expectation is to reach the semifinals to compete for a medal. We trained for 21 days before arriving here and the team has gradually improved. In addition, each match will give us a measure of how we are progressing”.
Eduardo Galarza, Head Coach of Puerto Rico: “This is a group from a new cycle, and we have only one athlete returning (the team captain). The group is very talented, tall, plays fast, and has great ball control. Our goal is to qualify for the World Championship and win the tournament”.
Jamie Morrison, Head Coach of the United States: “This is a learning opportunity for our young athletes that we see having the potential to be in the national team one day. We had a shorter five-day training block during the summer and then a three-day training block leading up to this. I’m proud of our athletes for the amount of dedication they put in this short period of time and how much better they’ve gotten. We’re excited to show the world who we are on the volleyball court in this tournament”.
The arrival of Costa Rica is expected on Saturday night.
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