The usually action-packed Southern Volleyball League (SVL) is expected to explode with great entertainment as seven men’s teams vie for top honours in what is anticipated to be a titanic battle of bragging rights.
The SVL will kick off in earnest on Saturday at Suiderlig Hall at Keetmanshoop in the //Kharas region, with only the men’s volleyball teams to ply their trade this season.
Speaking to Desert Radio recently, Southern Volleyball Association (SVA) chairperson Silas Santos Naholo said they have not registered any women volleyball teams at the moment.
The SVL league title is without a doubt competitive, with the various sides not seeing eye to eye as they all hope to clinch the title and get promoted to the Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) Volleyball National League.
Naholo said the 2024 SVL will feature Hoachans VC, Keetmanshoop VC, Lüderitz VC, Maltahöhe VC, Oranjemund VC, Quiver VC and Southern Warrior VC in what will be a race for stardom.
“This season we are starting a bit late. Our league will run from 25 May to August this year.”
As for the sponsor, the chairman said: “That is a struggle we have at the moment, which also hampers some team’s ability to participate. We currently have no sponsor for our league.”
He added: “We buy our materials from our club, teams and players’ registration fees, as well as allocating part of that contribution money towards awards and prize ceremonies, which is really a small amount just to try and uplift the morale of the winning teams.”
Naholo said SVA do not have volleyball facilities of their own.
“We make use of school halls or town facilities like tennis or netball courts to set up our volleyball nets, and play as long as it is on concrete floors,” he stressed.
“There are daily charges which we pay that comes with using these facilities.”
Despite the challenges, the SVL popularity is gaining momentum since its inception in 2019, as they bolster the league with clubs from almost every second town in the south that forms part of the SVA.
Naholo said the SVA is a regional association running the affairs of volleyball in the country’s southern regions.
He said registering a team costs N$500, and individual players pay only N$50.
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