Ebanks sees upside for beach volleyball

O'neil Ebanks, founder of the New Levels Volleyball Academy, says there is interest in beach volleyball in Jamaica.

Ebanks was fortified in this belief at the inaugural New Levels Sandblast beach tournament recently at the G.C. Foster College of Physical Education & Sport.

"I see that we still have some work to do to capture more persons or more teams, because we were looking to have more teams than that. We had eight teams, but I didn't let that deter anything," Ebanks STAR Sports.

"We still had good, decent competition taking place. Seeing that, on the next staging, I am sure that we'll have more teams coming in because, based on what the spectators who were there saw, you can see that there's an interest sparking somewhere along the line."

National players Rick Webb and Mark Blake won the men's event, with Petal Smith and Sashalee Wallen taking the women's crown.

"They (Webb and Blake) got some competition from the second-place team of Ronaldo Franklin and Rhovine Plummer. They really got some good competition there. So I see the next staging being much brilliant than it was, and it was a slow start, but I believe we will get better from here," Ebanks recounted.

Some of the teams' youth made the coach optimistic about the future.

PROMISING TEAMS

"The level of play in the female was not as high as the male but still, it showed a lot of promise because two of the female teams were two high-school teams. Kayla Doyley and Kara Burrell are two Immaculate players, and this was the first time they were going on the sand to play beach volleyball.

The presence of the Immaculate Conception High School pair led Ebanks to point to the possible involvement of the Inter-Schools Secondary Sports Association (ISSA).

"ISSA is interested in having a beach competition for the schools. So, again, that could spark some more growth and so more interest, which is why I'm saying, in the next staging, we should see a lot more teams coming out and a lot more interest," Ebanks said.

"This is just starting to turn the wheel. That's the plan because I've put it across to the volleyball association that we need to have a beach league for ourselves, whereas, just as how we have an indoor national competition, we need to have a beach competition to go along with that so that you can attract interest, you can attract more players and, when it comes to national programmes, you have more choices in terms of persons to bring into the programme to represent the country," said the man who directs the very successful Wolmer's Girls' School volleyball programme.