John Ndlovu and Clive Thabo Dube
The Bulawayo Volleyball Association (BVA) has successfully held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the City. The Annual General Meeting was held last Saturday with one of the major resolution being to address the issue of scarcity of referees in the game.
Speaking during the meeting which was held in the Bulawayo Central Business District (CBD), the Chairperson of the league Joseph Dzimadzi encouraged clubs to rope in players and coaches into the referees fold.
“The area of technical officials was a very huge one, the standard minimum is three referees per court, but because of our administration we ended up with two we are looking on improving that as it compromises the quality of the league itself which is not okay, we need to bridge the gap between the existing officials and the ones that are learning to be officials. We have what we call the referee understudy program, unfortunately it did not breed fruits we expected, we identify people with potential and the desire to be officials, the referee’s course is two-days, for one to gain experience it takes constant practice and exposure to the rules and regulations. That’s matters to do with the score-sheet and everything in the game. It is a way to mitigate the scarcity of officials at games, if we have an understudy referees they would assist the senior referees and bridge the gap and shortage of referees.” Dzimadzi said.
The Bulawayo Volleyball Association Chairperson further urged clubs to expose their stakeholders to real game atmosphere so that volleyball can grow.
“These courses are not just mere destinations but it is a long process, as some of its elements need to be sharpened, so expertise and experience is gained from constantly being roped into the games to officiate practically for one to gain practical skills such as composure and ability to officiate in bigger league occasions. I am speaking from experience because the toughest match I officiate was between Highlanders and Rhinos, I was the second referee in that game, the temperatures in that match were very high, no one will ever teach you that, so one needs to be exposed to real game atmosphere to gain required experience.” Bulawayo Volleyball Chairperson echoed.
The roping in of understudy referees was affirmed by BVA clubs officials present at the AGM as they stated that it would be a perfect move for each club to provide understudy students to the program for the development of the game and curbing the officials exodus which has been the topical issue in the game.
The City Of Kings Volleyball Chairperson also commended the excellent strides made by the Association in the past season in 2022 despite the tight budget and the COVID-19 induced hangover in which they claimed a gold medal at the Zimbabwe inter-provincial championships.
“2022 was a trying year, we did not achieve all we intended, but we made strides in the right direction, levels of competition was good, the award ceremony being the highlight of the 2022 season.”Dzimadzi said.
“We have had solid strides in terms of developing our province and competitiveness, we took the Zimbabwe inter-provincial championships in the men’s category we became gold medalists, we would like to acknowledge Highlanders for their stellar performance at the zonal competition.” Added Dzimadzi.
The Annual General Meeting was attended by officials from the Bulawayo Volleyball Association affiliates from Lycans, Chimoio, Vipers and ZRP Ntabazinduna.