by William Ysaguirre
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Jan. 6, 2025
Belizean volleyball star Khaya Gordon has been a star attacker for the Navarro College Bulldogs in Texas since July 2023, where she celebrated a career milestone of 500 kills in American collegiate competition last October 2024. She has now signed with Clemson University, in South Carolina, where she will pursue her studies towards a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering.
The move to Clemson makes her the first homegrown athlete to play a team sport at a major NCAA Division I program in over 25 years. This is but the latest chapter in Khaya’s success story, which began with the St. Catherine Academy “Seahawks”, whom she helped to win the 2019 National Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA) volleyball championships.
She went on to score 56 pts in 5 matches to help the Belize Under-16 girls win the Silver medal at the 13th Central American Under-18 championships in San Jose, Costa Rica in November 2019.
She had also scored 37 pts in 4 matches to help Belize U-21 girls win the Silver medal at the Central American U-21 championships at the Belize City Civic Center in July 2022.
She helped the St. John’s Junior College girls win the Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize (ATLIB) national volleyball championship in San Pedro in October 2022, and was a star attacker for the S.Q. Mega Stars when they won the Belize Volleyball Association’s national championships at the Civic Center in March 2023.
Khaya won awards: Best Spiker – 89 hits, and Best Scorer – 104 pts, after she led the Belize Under-19 girls to win the Silver medal at the 14th Central American U-19 volleyball championships at the Belize City Civic Center in July 2023.
Khaya’s drive, discipline, and perseverance towards her goals serve to inspire young Belizean athletes across the nation, demonstrating that with hard work, Belizean talent can shine on the international stage, and that the sky’s the limit for the athletes willing to work for it.