AFRICAN VOLLEYBALLERS ‘JUST WANT TO LEARN’
IT took an annual leave application and 51 hours of travel for beach volleyballer Delcio Soares to land on the Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games.
While other athletes and teams are touching down with lofty dreams, Soares and teammate Carlos Acacio simply want to take their learnings out of the Games back to Mozambique to help the eastern African nation’s next generation.
The 31-year-old admitted to not knowing much about Australia before flying in but has been blown away by the warm reception of locals.
“In some other countries you find it less easy but here I never felt that,” he said.
Soares, a PE teacher in his homeland capital of Maputo, knows it is a long-term project for his country at the showpiece event.
“Everybody knows that the level in Africa is not like the rest of the world,” he said.
“We have been learning. We are waiting for a coach who has been sent by FIVB (Federation Internationale de Volleyball) to teach us how to develop, so we are trying to grow.
“We are here to learn and to get experience.
“We know that we must learn more to become professional players in the future, to take our experience to Mozambique to make the kids develop.”
The 31-year-old previously played indoor volleyball professionally in Algeria. Beach volleyball will be contested at Coolangatta from April 6-12.