Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) will host Howard University ladies volleyball team in May for the launch of an annual tournament in collaboration with an American Volleyball Agency.
Bring It Promotions (BIP), is a full-service volleyball travel agency with partners and staff across the world.
They specialise in international volleyball tours and events as well as career development.
According to BVF President Tsoseletso Magang, the BIP team first came to Botswana in 2018, bringing along a ‘volleyball team from Howard University.
“They want to come here every year, and want to bring along teams from colleges and universities from the US to participate in tournaments,”said Magang.
The BVF President told Voice Sport that the team will also bring professional coaches who’ll conduct coaching clinics for both beach and indoor volleyball.
“Seeing their dedication we found it fitting to involve the University of Botswana (UB) since they’re currently the only ones affiliated to us. We want this to be a big event, a platform for skills transfer to benefit players in our learning institutions,” Magang told Voice Sport.
Magang said while they’d have loved to make this a big tournament they’re however hampered by lack of money.
“The Agency wanted us to invited teams from as far as Kenya and Tanzania, but for now we’ll look in our zone. We don’t have the resources to host that many universities and colleges,” revealed Magang.
She further said two teams from Zambia have shown interest, while they’re still in negotiations with other teams from Zimbabwe and Namibia.
She further said they also intend to include the ladies national team, but could be limited by resources to bring in a full sqaud.
“We’re cash strapped, it this makes it difficult for us to do anything. Our financial situation is not a secret because last year we didn’t get even a quarter of what we asked for in our budget. Our money was way too little to run our activities,” she said.
Despite the well documented financial doldrums, Magang believes collaboration with Howard University, and the expertise brought by BIP staff could open many doors for local players.
“BIP focuses mainly on historically black universities and colleges, so we expect them to bring other institutions from the USA. Not only that, even other institutions from Africa taking part in the tournament can present opportunities for some of our players,” she said.
The president urged local institutions to affiliate with BVF in order to be eligible next time.
“So far only UB is an affiliate, but we want institutions like Botho College, BUAN and others to work with us,” pleaded Magang.
The President said they are still pursuing the Ministry and private companies are hopeful that someone will come to their aid, as they intend to have a running league this year.
“Tournaments are not enough, we need a league that could run for at least six months,” Magang said.