The year 2022 will go down in history as a watershed year for beach volleyball in South Africa as the SSD Foundation has pledged a bonus pool of R100 000 for the promotion and development of the sport for youth and junior athletes in both genders. The founding members of the family created SSD Foundation are Mr Vinesh Maharaj and the Late Tubby Reddy former President and Honorary Life President of Volleyball South Africa. According to Vinesh Maharaj, the founding member of the SSD Foundation caters for a number of sporting codes. However, as a former volleyball player for the Tongaat based Ghandhi’s Hill Volleyball Club his passion for the sport has made beach volleyball a priority code by SSDF to be developed for international competition.
Maharaj went on to say that in addition to participation in the elite national beach volleyball tour that boasts R100 000 as prize money the athletes have an unique opportunity of qualifying for bursaries to study any one of the following courses:
Medicine / Sports Medicine
Engineering
Information Technology
Business Management & Marketing
Accounting
Law
Sports Science
Diploma courses in the technical fields
An added bonus according to Maharaj is that outstanding performers are eligible to qualify for sports scholarships to study at an overseas university. In such a case the university in question will attach a full time volleyball coach to the South African athletes. In congratulating SSDF on their ground breaking programme VSA President Mr.Anthony Mokoena said: ‘’This remarkable initiative by SSDF will give beach volleyball a huge boost in our country as we will have a continuous flow of young athletes that will
gain much needed experience on our national circuit. These elite athletes will form the core of our teams that will represent South Africa in African and World Championships.’’
The inaugural VSA-SSDF Beach Volleyball Tour takes place in three provinces in the first year. The twelve (12) national events will culminate in a final top 8 King and Queen of the beach where players will be rubbing their hands in glee to get a slice of the huge bonus pool prize money.
The prize money is allocated as follows:
1st : R 20 000
2nd : R 12 000
3rd : R 7 000
4th : R 5 000
5th to 8th positions: R 6 000
Provinces are expected to host beach volleyball events to select their top two teams in both genders by the end of March this year to participate in this milestone event.
Donovan Nair
Secretary- General
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