Volleyball Cranes rise to fifth in Africa, no national club champion

The year 2021 will be one to remember for those associated with Ugandan volleyball.
That the Volleyball Cranes made their debut at the CAVB African men’s Championship was good enough for a start in Kigali, Rwanda.
The performance in Kigali, Rwanda, even better as Shilla Omuriwe and her charges finished fifth despite training for a month and not played competitively since 2019.
With the 2020 league season cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdowns, only the players from Nemostars -who played the Africa Club Championship- had some game time in them.

Led by the ever green George Aporu and Daudi Okello, the Cranes caused a wave.
They beat Burkina Faso 3-1, demolished Burundi 3-0 to progress to the quarters with a game to spare. The 3-1 to Rwanda didn’t matter.
In the quarters, Egypt eliminated them 3-1. Omuriwe’s team beat DR Congo in 5-8th place playoffs and then dominated Rwanda 3-1 for fifth.

Local chaos
From Kigali, attention turned to the return of volleyball action on the local scene and the National Clubs Championship was the first major competition.
Held in Kabale, the tournament ended with Ndejje Elites dismissing KCCA in straight sets to win the ladies’ category and book a ticket to next year’s Africa Clubs Championship but the men’s final still hangs in balance.
Sport-S and Nemostars made the final after beating Orange Block Busters (OBB) and KCCA respectively in the semis but due to poor lighting, the final was rescheduled to a later date.

Uganda Volleyball Federation (UVF) rescheduled the final to be played at the Sport-S Grounds in Nsambya, something Nemostars contested citing unfair advantage to Sport-S who use the ground as their home court.
Nkumba was mooted as host only for Sport-S to suggest that it should happen in Kabale, the initial venue but UVF declined.
It will now happen on January 15, 2022 at the Old Kampala Arena.
The last time Sport-S and Nemostars met in the 2019 league finals, the former forfeitted the decisive game of the series claiming they had evidence the referees had ganged up to fail their title chase.

League returns
The 2019 season ended on the wrong note with Nemostars crowned without playing the decisive game of the series following a boycott by Sport-S.
Then came 2020 which was a dead year for volleyball and other sports due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.
The National League finally returned and the teams go into the festive season with the first round already concluded.
Sport-S lead the way in the men’s Serie A despite losing 3-1 to second placed Nemostars.
Meanwhile, UCU Doves, who made the finals in 2018, are fighting for their life in the top flight after losing most of their players.

While there was no volleyball in 2020, the students continued to study, graduated and moved on to other teams.
The Doves actually started the season late after being allowed time to recruit new players.
Meanwhile Ndejje Elites and Vision Volleyball Camp look favourites to challenge for the women’s title as defending champions KCB-Nkumba struggle to find their form this season.

Nasiwu back in part two

UVF went to the polls at the start of the year and ushered new leadership but with familiar faces.
At the electoral assembly held at the Hockey Grounds in Lugogo, Sadik Nasiwu returned to reclaim a seat he had resigned from in 2017.
He revealed that various volleyball stakeholders had begged him to come back and take volleyball to the next level.
He tallied 227 votes to beat incumbent Hadijah Namanda who got just 20 votes and Eddie Okila with 27. 

[email protected]