The championship billed to spike–off from July 8th – 10th, 2009 is part of the zone’s desire to encourage other sports and create platform for states to engage their athletes in a competitive tournament.
The South West Volleyball Tournament is open to the states in the zone and other states which may be interested in taking part in the three day event..
According to the zonal coordinator of the National Sports Commission, Nelson Peter six states outside the zone have signified their intention to be part of the three days event. The states are Edo , Kwara, Plateau and Rivers states while two others are yet to confirm their participation fully.
Speaking further he said his commitment to developing sports at the grassroots sports in the zone prompted the championship in which he expressed hope that it would attain the desire results while talents tapped would be properly monitored by the zone in order to take over from the ageing players in the near future.
“This competition meant for boys and girls is part of our line-up programmes for the year and we intend to use this opportunity to discover more talents for the nation as the trend of taking over from the old players will be achieved in this event. In our zone here, we have programmes for all sporting events”, Nelson noted.
Nelson, who is a former basketball top player however expressed his wilingness to welcome more states who might still want to be part of the competition as lots of prizes have been put in place for various categories of winners such as trophies, gift items, T- Shirts & Face Caps etc.
Meanwhile, dignitaries expected at the tourney are the Director –General of NSC, Chief Patrick Ekeji who will be the Special Guest of Honour, while Engr. Habu Gumel, President of Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) will be the guest of honour. Commissioners for sports in each of the participating states, Directors and General Managers are also expected to grace the occasion as special guest while the newly inaugurated zonal representatives on the boards of National Sports Federation from the South-West zone would be special guests.
