By NAN
Suraj Onatuga, the Chief Coach, Lagos State Volleyball Association (LSVA), on Tuesday pledged to develop the state team, to meet international standard.
Onatuga disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, after a training section.
He commended the state government for its support toward the training of the players, and called on private individuals and corporate organisations to support his dream.
“We missed out in representing the state in the forthcoming National Youth Games in Abuja due to lack of funds.
“We were sad about this, but were encouraged by the state to keep up with our training programmes and prepare our players for next year’s National Sports Festival in Calabar,” the coach said.
Onatuga added that he has been training 12 players every Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as working with some games masters of secondary schools, to discover more talents from the grassroots.
“We have to bring in players that can replace the ageing ones and we can only achieve this by encouraging the young ones by training them and engaging them in competitions.
“Incidentally, we are blessed with young guns that love the game and adhere to the discipline it entails, to build them up to international standard.
“With their level of discipline, it makes my work easier and I feel I owe them a responsibility to teach them necessary skills for them to play at the global stage,” he said.
