Volleyball sensation prepares to don Jamaica"s colours

PREPARATION for the Caribbean Volleyball Championships this summer is in high gear as the Jamaica Volleyball Association on Sunday signalled its intention for the team to go farther than ever this year when they announced that collegiate volleyball sensation Jamion Hartley has been called up to the national team.

Hartley, a Jamaican by birth, has been living in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America since moving there with his family when he was seven years old.

After being persuaded to play volleyball while in the eighth grade at high school, Hartley’s raw talent and skill exploded, and he was voted most valuable player in his senior year.

He has spent the last four years dominating the collegiate circuit and honing his skills while attending Ball State University (BSU), one of the top-ranked colleges in volleyball in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). While at BSU, he made a name for himself wracking up double-digit kills in matches at a dizzying rate.

His 30 kills in his 10th match under the BSU banner still holds the number two spot for most kills in a match. The six-foot-seven left-handed outside hitter also has impressive stats in aces and digs, which are made all the more impressive by his recent revelation that until that fateful day when his high school volleyball coaches convinced him to give the sport a try, he was determined to become a professional basketball player.

“I was one of those kids that practised in the snow, I really wanted to make it, but I think it burned me out at an early age,” he said in a recent interview.

Having been convinced to give volleyball a try, Hartley said he simply fell in love with the sport, and has not looked back since.

His exploits on the court have not gone unnoticed, and he was recently recruited to play professionally for VCA Amstetten Volleyball Club in Austria. At the end of the professional circuit in May, Hartley, who lived at Brotherton Avenue in Kingston in his childhood years, will be reuniting with his countrymen as they try to best their Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) counterparts to take top honours at Caribbean Volleyball Championships in Trinidad in July of this year.

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Volleyball sensation prepares to don Jamaica"s colours

JustBet renews partnership with beach volleyball league

Sport

Sunday, September 08, 2013

SUPREME Ventures Limited, through its sports betting brand, JustBet, recently renewed its title sponsorship with the Jamaica Volleyball Association (JAVA) for the staging of the 2013 JUSTBET/TVJSN Beach Volleyball competition, to the tune of $2million.The JustBet/TVJSN Beach Volleyball competition will take the format of a series of three one-day tournaments open to all interested persons and was scheduled to start yesterday at Long Bay Beach in Negril. Participants will gain and accumulate points based on their final placement in each leg of the tournament. The tournament will continue this Saturday at Cornwall Beach, Montego Bay, and the following Saturday at the UDC Beach in Ocho Rios. All games begin at 9:00 am.Following the tournament, the top six teams will then advance to a play-off, which consists of first and second rounds, semi-final and final. The teams in the play-offs will be placed into two groups, of which, the first round will take the format of a one-day round robin on September 28, while in the second round, the top four teams will advance to a two-day round robin scheduled for October 5 and 6. The semi-finals will then be played on October 12, and the finals and third-place play-offs on October 13.In expressing the gaming company’s delight in partnering with JAVA, Andrei Roper, Senior Marketing Officer of JUSTBET, said: “We are very thrilled to be on-board with what certainly promises to be another exciting beach volleyball competition. Volleyball on a whole is always entertaining, engaging and exciting and this is what we want to create and bring out at each of the venues on match days. Therefore, we encourage all sports fans to come out and support your favourite teams on match days.”Major Warrenton Dixon, president of the Jamaica Volleyball Association, expressed his gratitude at the support from the sponsors, and his excitement for the start and the new format of the competition. He said: “The Jamaica Volleyball Association (JAVA) is pleased that for the second consecutive year JustBet and TVJSN have partnered with us to stage a major beach volleyball competition for local players. JustBet, who was the first to come on-board last year, injected a lot of impetus into our efforts to develop the sport of beach volleyball and their continued support this year will help us to sure up the foundation of our development. Last year resource limitation confined us to running the competition in Kingston. This year the increased sponsorship will allow us to take the competition closer to several players who felt left out in 2012. Additionally, we have been able to double the prize monies available to the players.”Other sponsors of the competition include Jamaica Blue Bottled Spring Water.Andrei Roper (left), senior marketing officer, JustBet, presents a symbolic sponsorship cheque to Jamaica Volleyball Association President Major Warrenton Dixon, recently.

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JustBet renews partnership with beach volleyball league