Guadalajara, August 14, 2023.- The XVI Pan American Senior Men’s Volleyball Cup that will give the last ticket to the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games for NORCECA Confederation and ranking points, will begin this Tuesday at the Astros Arena in Guadalajara.
Cuba, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic have already qualified to Santiago 2023 Games; but the cup will grant to the best NORCECA team ranked at the end of the competition the last ticket for the Pan-American Games.
The coaches of the 10 participating teams agree that this tournament will be very balanced since the Pan American Cup will allow to continue a training process for the new talents, who will get more experience and tactics.
Mario Izquierdo, head coach from Cuba: “We bring a fairly homogeneous group, with players from the base categories who are given the opportunity to get experience to guarantee the reserve for the national teams. For years we have been longing for a so-called ‘second group’, which gives a certain rest to the elite figures that we have established within the senior team.”
Daniel Nejamkin, head coach from Chile: “These help us to prepare for Santiago 2023 will allow us to get there with the best level. The team’s bet is to deliver the maximum in each of the matches and present the best possible level. It is normal to have new players, we are always looking for new talents that come from the base teams to follow the process for the senior team and the best are here. We take the incorporation of young people very naturally.”
Andy Read, head coach from USA: “There are some players who come from the youth process, and compared to the under-21 team this is much more experienced, we have many players who we believe will have the possibility to be in the future U.S. men’s national team. We hope to see them soon on the World Championship and World League rosters. We are looking to improve in the ranking of the tournament and hopefully we will go home with the gold medal.”
Carlos Schwanke, Head coach from Brazil: “We have new talents with the intention of giving them more international experience. When Brazil is in an event the idea is always to be in the first places, to represent the country well. We always try to place our players who are not able to be in the roster of the VNL or World Cups, so that when they go to these tournaments, they already have experience.”
José Gutiérrez, Head Coach from Dominican Republic: “This is our fourth participation in the Pan American Cup, but this year has more teams and that is a special meaning. The idea is to try to continue improving, that the men’s team follows the line of development, because we are showing that it has been growing. We want the team to be able to maintain what it has shown so far, beyond the result that can be presented because there are technical objectives that we need to meet.”
Jorge Azair López, Head Coach from Mexico: “This is a strong tournament, quite even because the powerful countries do not bring their main teams and that makes us think that we have a very even competition. We are at home and always the goal is to win the event. We are in a process with a young team, with rotation of players, but always thinking about going out to win.”
Daniel Lewis, Head Coach from Canada: “We have a really interesting group here, a combination of young and experienced players. Playing in Mexico is great, there are many good teams here and good youth players, that allows players who need to rest and train for other events. We expect a really good tournament, that’s why we’re excited and happy.”
Sebastian Ortiz, Head Coach from Colombia: “We bring a mixed team, with young people and experienced players, who will try to give the best presentation and will be as preparation for upcoming events such as the South American.”
Juan Carlos Alas, Head Coach from Peru: “It is our first tournament in a year, it will help us prepare for the South American Games, but we will not stop competing. We have prepared well, it will help to adjust elements for another competition, we are in a difficult group with powerful teams, but we will fight”.
Oswald Antonetti, Head Coach from Puerto Rico: “It is important to continue with a process with the young players, we know they are talented and will meet a serious level of play and level in the Pan American Cup and we will keep constantly growing and take advantage of every opportunity we have.”
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