MONCTON, Canada, September 10, 2026.- Eight teams are in Moncton, Canada, for the 2026 NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship, where three berths to the 2027 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup in Poland will be at stake. The tournament will also determine the teams that advance to NORCECA’s final qualification stage for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Head coaches shared their comments in advance of the first day of competition, which begins Friday Sept. 11.
Curacao Head Coach Daal Henrich: “It’s the first time at this level for a long time for our team. We saw many of these teams last month in Mexico, we know they are at a higher level than us, so we just have to play our game. … Our goal is to play as well as possible and see how tight we can make the games.
It’s always nice to play the home team in front of their crowd (Curacao plays host Canada on Friday). We are looking forward to that. “
USA Head Coach Karch Kiraly: “NORCECA came up with a creative solution for this situation for the Olympic qualifying phase. We are thrilled to be included in the Championship and included in phase one, as we already have spot in the Olympic Games. We look forward to playing great teams in the NORCECA zone like Canada and Cuba, it’s a wonderful learning opportunity for us. We are also looking to earn the World Cup berth and play our best to finish out the 2026 season.”
Canada’s Head Coach Dan Lewis: “We have had five weeks of preparation, which is a good amount, but not a lot of friendlies. The most important thing in this first pool phase is to get accustomed to the new surroundings and then start to execute as a group on the court well enough to hopefully win the pool. That provides us with an extra day off (and going directly to the semifinals). Right now the guys are hyper-motivated and very focused. So we’ll see how the tournament progresses.”
Puerto Rico Head Coach Jamille Torres: “We know who we have to beat here and we’re just looking forward to having a good tournament. We want to be in a place to get an Olympic spot and qualify for the World Cup. We’ve just competed at four tournaments before this, so we are really prepared. We gave the guys some time off after the Final Six, but we are ready.”
Guatemala Head Coach Reider Lucas: “We are happy to be in this event. We should have a good competition because we’ve had the opportunity to play at a similar level during the year and we should have a good performance. We are aware that it’s a very hard event, very important and as I said before, we are glad to be here.”
Mexico head coach Carlos Schwanke: “The ambitions are the same for everybody here; to qualify first of all for the World Championship and after that try as hard as we can to be in the next Olympic Games. We have been working hard toward this goal and it’s an important task for Mexico.”
Dominican Republic Head Coach Jose Manon: “We’re here representing the Dominican Republic. We faced some visa issues with a few players, but we’ve brought a team ready to compete.”
Cuba: not available for preliminary meeting.
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