And, Gareth Bruce - who emerged as the real spark plug for that dominant team - shared her volleyball origin story this morning. Without any effort or artifice, the diminutive star said it's not about height; it's about heart:
Gareth Bruce, Captain, U21 National Team
"I started volleyball at the age of five years old. I grew up in the St. Martin's De Porres area. I went to St. Martin's De Porres primary school as well. And I remember in standard three, I would always go to practice in the evening and my fellow classmates would be like, girl, where are you going with this big bag, you know, like every evening I just to go and its like why I no hear anything about volleyball, like what are you doing, like you are just going to practice for practice. And I mean, all the practice just for practice turn into this big accomplishment."
"And I just want to say to all athletes, women, male, height is not everything. If you have the love for the sport and you have the heart, the dedication, the fight, everything in you to do good and keep your head up no matter what other people have to say, no matter who doubt you, no matter whatever. Just always believe in yourself even if nobody believes in you."
And Association. President Allan Sharp who toiled away through many humiliations at regional games in the 90's underscored the hallmark of this team in this tournament: TOTAL DOMINANCE:
Allan Sharp, President, Volleyball Association
"And what was fantastic with this one is that it was dominant, dominant, 3-0 every time. I think only Nicaragua get past 20 in one set. We made it known that little Belize of the 40 plus million people in all of Central America, we with our 400,000, we got talent."
"What you have done is changed, not only volleyball in Belize, is sport."
The team was also on Sunup this morning and you can see a repeat of that after the news.
