Africa-Press – Uganda. Nemostars are used to going into the festive season with the league title in their cabin but that will not be the case this year.
Changes made to the volleyball calendar will see the league stretch well into 2022 and Nemostars are just kicking off their campaign today.
The start of the league for the champions comes with uncertainty still surrounding completion of the National Clubs Championship whose final is yet to be scheduled.
They are supposed to play Sport-S in the final.
The focus, however, according to head coach Andrew Okapis, is now on the league as the team looks to deal with only what they can control.
“We have our eyes on the league and we are ready to go,” Okapis said ahead of the side’s first game.
It is the first league game Nemostars will go into without founder and Patron Neko Moduse Ojala who passed on in June.
The six-time champions agree in unison that the only way to honour Old Coach, as he was fondly referred to, is by continuing with the success that he presided over when still around.
“We have to plan better especially now that we have no third eye in all we do. We must avoid dropping points due to avoidable errors,” Okapis added.
Team captain George Aporu expects a tough season and especially the teams’ fitness levels to be tested because of the lockdowns that had left most players innactive.
“The league will probably be weaker because of the long COVID break that has affected everyone,” Aporu told this paper.
The receiver-attacker has lifted the title four times in the last five seasons and the climax was always torwards the end of the year and it will be strange for him and everyone this time round.
“The season will be one for learning and experiencing the new calendar. We are playing our first game now yet before we would finalizing the season,”
“We hope to put up a good display of volleyball and obviously we want the trophy
“At Nemostars we are ready to play volleyball and we are excited to be back on court hard.”
With UCU Doves struggling to organise themselves and get a team for the season following departure of the biggest part of the 2019 team, Sport-S are expected to be the biggest challengers to Nemostars.
The two sides faced off in the 2019 finals that ended in chaos with Sport-S boycotting the decider and Nemostars crowned champions.
A repeat of that final will decide the winner of this year’s National Club Championship but first, the league is here and Nemostars are looking at taking home title number seven.
They open their campaign today in a clash with Nkumba at the university campus.
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