Jeremiah Harrison
Sports Reporter
Lycans is a volleyball club founded by a Roman Catholic priest and plays their trade in Pumula suburb.
They use St. Bernard’s Mission grounds for training but they travel to Bulawayo Athletics Club for matches.
The club caters for both males and females, Lycans consists of youths from the age of 15 years upwards.
Lycans Volleyball Club is a non profit making organisation founded by Father James Batsirai, that seeks to use volleyball as a tool to achieve character development, mental and physical fitness.
The club equips youths with leadership skills and thrives to remove the youths from the streets.
Since it’s a community team Lycans Volleyball Club caters for Christians and non Christians players as such it has Catholic and non Catholic players.
Their main goal is to play in the competitive league in Bulawayo and in Zimbabwe at large, this will only be possible if the team is fully registered with Bulawayo Volleyball Association.
Due to financial constraints the team is still playing in the social league (friendly matches).
The team’s chairperson Decent Ndlovu spoke to Zim GBC News on the challenges they are facing as a club.
Ndlovu said that they do not have proper kits, volleyball balls, training equipment, and affiliation fees.
Ndlovu said,”We are a vibrant team, we want to take volleyball to the professional level. We want the youths to make a living out of volleyball.”
“It’s very difficult to play without resources. That’s the reason why we are looking for sponsors to help us in order for us to play in a competitive league.”
Lycans Volleyball Club is aiming to start playing in the league by the end of this year.
Another exucutive member of the team Public Relations Officer Clara Sibanda, said that the youths are committed and they are passionate with the sport.
“In terms of participation, the youths are participating in the sport and they are showing positive energy, if we are to start playing in the league I am confident that we will produce good results.” said Sibanda.
Male team’s captain Mpumelelo Moyo gave a word of encouragement to the youths who are in the streets.
“Sport is one of most paying jobs in the world, therefore I encourage youths to take action and make right decisions to partake in sports activities. Sport activities can make you stay away from drugs and crime.” said Mpumelelo Moyo.
Volleyball might not be as popular as soccer but it seems the participation is high among the youths. During weekends Bulawayo Athletics Club is always packed with youths and young adults playing the sport.
Despite three years of COVID-19 Lycans Volleyball Club has never stopped training sessions. They were training as individuals to keep themselves fit for health purposes and games.
Decent Ndlovu concluded by saying that he is happy with the talent among his team members.
He said “I’m very happy to say that we have immense talent we just need to polish here and there to get to the level that we want.”
The last time Lycans played was on the 19th of February both teams (men and women) played two matches each at Bulawayo Athletics Club.
Lycans women’s team was pitted in a match against Chimoio women and they won 2-1. They played against Fairbridge and lost by 2-1.
The Men’s team played against Fairbridge Support Unit and lost by 3-2 after a tie break set. They went on to claim victory against Chimoio, which ended 2-1 in favour of Lycans.
The team is therefore appealing for sponsorship so as to be able to affiliate in National Volleyball League.
Medvedev The New World Number One
Daniil Medvedev is the new world number one tennis player after Novak Djokovic was knocked out in quarter finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Thursday last week.
The ratings are by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Medvedev entered the Mexican Open with the opportunity to gain the world number 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic. Medvedev reached the semifinals after defeating Benoît Paire, Pablo Andújar and Yoshihito Nishioka.
In a rematch of the Australian Open final, he was defeated again by Rafael Nadal in straight sets.
Despite losing, he clinched the world number 1 ranking after Djokovic lost in the Dubai quarterfinals. Medvedev thus became the first man outside of the Big Four to hold the top ranking since Andy Roddick in February 2004.
In January, Medvedev reached the final of the Australian Open for the second successive year. On the way, he beat home favorite Nick Kyrgios, and Felix Auger-Aliassime after recovering from a two set deficit and being match point down. In the final, he was defeated in five sets by Rafael Nadal despite taking a two-set lead.
At 5 hours and 24 minutes, it was the second longest major final ever played. In February, Medvedev was nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award for Breakthrough of the Year award.
He has won thirteen ATP Tour singles titles including the 2021 US Open and 2020 ATP Finals. Medvedev defeated then-world Number 1 Novak Djokovic in the final to deny him the Grand Slam. He became the first and only player to defeat the top three ranked players in the world.