“We are preparing for the upcoming Youth Olympics. This team has huge potential and a future. If they have all the support, they can compete anywhere and against any team. I am urging for them to push this team to the seniors in the future. By the time they are there, they will have good chemistry, and they will represent the Gambia anywhere in the world. ”
These were the words of coach Amadou Jarju after his charges secured ticket to the Volleyball U18 championship in Qatar.
The qualifying tournament held in Nigeria saw the Gambia clinching qualification for the world event as they will be one of the countries to represent Africa.
Jarju was elated by the success achieved by his side as they reached a Hallmark by winning two silvers and 1 gold in the span of five days
“I am very happy. This is my first task and assignment as far as beach volleyball is concerned. It’s a big achievement. Winning two silvers and a gold in a span of five days really excites me. It never happened.”
He wasn’t moved about the results in Algeria, where they lost to the host and champions.
“Algeria is not better than us. We were unbeaten until the finals. It’s a learning curve. When we lost in Algeria, we took that fighting spirit to Abuja. We promise not to settle for silver but rather go for gold. That’s the mentality we came with, and we kept pushing till the final. Now, we have qualified for both categories, and it’s indicating that if we have the support, we can conquer the world.
With the FIVB World Championship set between 8 and 11 October in Doha, Jarju charged his players to break the jinx and complicity of just participating.
“We don’t want to participate. We want to compete. It’s a phenomenon that most African countries go to the world championship just to participate, but we want to compete. We want to change that mentality.
The Gambia U18 volleyball coach started his coaching career with Gamtel/Gamcel in 2017 and has gone on to coach both males and females. He won the GAF trophy for the Gamtel/Gamcel female side as a coach. The current police male volleyball coach, coached Waa Banjul during his early days.
For the national team, Amo has been in the mix, coached the Gambia U21 indoor team in Tunisia, and was the Gambia Zone II assistant coach that won gold and won a bronze medal with the U19 in Nigeria.
He enjoyed a volleyball career as a player, playing home and abroad, like in Senegal and in Qatar, where he spent three seasons. He won all trophies in the national scene with Old Jeswang. Captaining the national team, where he won a gold medal in Zone II, and in 2013, he won the best attacker in Senegal.
Jarju called for more support towards female volleyball, as he started his coaching journey by coaching a female team.
“We have to push our female team and players. It’s not everything; the boys have to go. Women need to go to a high level. With support they can make a difference on the world stage with me.”
“Our training is lacking; we train only three days a week. That doesn’t help us. Beach volleyball you need to have more preparation time. Training camps should be perfect for meeting different countries and teams. We want to train in the morning and afternoon. It will help our performances. Our opponents used to train three months prior to playing against us,” he added.
