Our Best Feet Forward....

The third week in October saw 34 coaches from 33 countries representing 13 different sports descend upon the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for weeks 4 and 5 of their program, the International CoachesEnrichment Certificate Program put on by the USOC and the University of Delaware.

The coaches spent the first two weeks at UD, a week at either Penn State or Princeton, (depending on their sports) and finished the last two weeks up in the Springs.

The coaches were to put together a program for their sport in their country that fit a particular problem they were having, present and implement the program in their homeland and report back on the successes in March of 2014.

Four volleyball coaches were in the mix. There was Nedzad Osmankac from Serbia who was working on a thesis entitled, “Modeling Tactics Based on Statistical Analysis of Volleyball Games.” He was 266 pages into his work.

Then there was Steve “Hutch” Hutchinson from Texas who runs very popular camps and clinics in the Dallas area but once a year goes to Kenya to work with their coaches and athletes.

The other two coaches were Marjane Malikumu Malikumu from Zambia and Eardley Martin from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. These two talked about the game and their programs; identifying and keeping their talent playing, raising the level of the coaches in their country and a surprising issue both of their programs lacked.

Shoes.

They both talked of high tariffs on American goods compounded by the “open palms” that wanted their cut in order to get the shoes and other new equipment to their athletes. Eardley said a Molten volleyball would finally get to him at a cost of over $100 U.S. and Marjane explained that a pair of high quality athletic shoes, like Adidas, would cost $250 to buy in her village. Not too practical for a country whose median income is roughly $400 a year. Hutch pulled out his cell phone and showed us a picture of a volleyball timeout in Kenya, with a few players barefoot.

The only options these athletes have are no shoes or thin soled shoes with little ankle and heel support that would resemble ‘Vans’ or ‘Keds’ shoes in the U.S.

However, there is another option. Used shoes are NOT subject to the tariffs and “open hands” that the new goods are.
This is where we come in.

The Arizona Region is hosting a shoe drive. With club starting and high school and middle school ending, we know many of you will order new shoes and throw your slightly worn shoes in the back of your closet or your trunk. How about we send them around the world instead?

We will put a bin in the Region office to collect your shoes, in good condition and tied together. Feel free to stick a note in the toe of the shoe with some contact information on it to see where your shoes wind up. You may get a thank you e mail from Zambia one day!

If you have a box or more of shoes, Region Outreach will come pick them up from you. The Region will be mailing the boxes as we get them to the three countries and others that may also be in need.

Former U.S.A women’s Olympic coach Hugh McCutcheon often spoke of “A rising tide lifts all the boats.” Help us show our global neighbors that our Region is involved and for the good of the game worldwide anxious to put our best feet forward.