SJC Wildcats – NSSSA Male Volleyball Champions & NexGen Best of the Best Champions
by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 20, 2025
The National Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA) champions – the St. John’s College Wildcats, the Belize Volleyball Association (BVA) national champions – the Holy Redeemer Credit Union Eagles, and an All-Star Men’s Selection of the Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize (ATLIB) won their respective categories of the “Best of the Best” men’s volleyball tournament organized by NexGen at the Belize City Civic Center on Saturday, March 15.
ATLIB All Star Men’s Volleyball Selection – NexGen Best of the Best Champions
In Game 1 of the morning, the SJC Wildcats dominated the NSSSA All Stars from Mount
Carmel High School (MCHS), Muffles College and Toledo Community College (TCC), 3-0. Daniel Musa, Orion Butler, Amare Williams, Khayden Staine and Christian Courtney led the Wildcats’ offensive, hammering kills at the net on plays set by Leonardo Riverol to win the first set, 25-18.
Mt. Carmel’s Nevin Gabourel, Said Habet and Selvin Mata led the All Stars’ counterattacks, along with Muffles’ Albert Guy and Jose Linares, scoring hits on balls set by Luca Mena. MCHS’ Iban Vasquez, TCC’s Kyon, Muffles’ Scott Sample and libero Louisean Morataya took the court to help on defence. SJC’s Zach Musa, Orel Guy, Nicolas Soberanis and libero Quincy Jones came off the bench to help win the next 2 sets, 25-18, 25-21.
In Game 2, the All Stars selection of the Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize (ATLIB) dominated the defending ATLIB national champions – the St. John’s Junior College and University men, 3-0. Eliazar Mejia, Joel McKoy, Jamion Recinos, Tepahune Frazer and Lebron Baizar scored hits on balls set by Christian Castillo to win the first set, 25-20.
Michael Barber, Krish Kadany, Daniel Ajero, Kayden Requeña and David Garbutt led SJCJC’s counterattacks, spiking kills at the net on plays set by Lawrence Mahler, and Jeremiah Thimbrel, Guilian Alamilla, Nittin Israni, Arnaldo Peña and libero Tyrel Lucario joined the fray.
To no avail, as Kerwin Palacio, Brayan Quintanilla, Zinedine Ical, Tayjuan Villafranco, and Ahmad Bennett came off the All Stars bench to sweep the net 2 sets, 25-2, 25-21.
HRCU Eagles – BVA National Men’s Champions and NexGen Best of the Best Champions
In Game 3, the reigning national senior men’s champions, the HRCU Eagles prevailed in a hard-fought duel that went the full 5 sets against the All Stars senior men’s selection of the Belize Volleyball Association. Karym Coleman, Yserei Palacio, Shane Gentle, Kyron Sutherland and Jacob Guenther led the All Stars’ attacks, hammering kills at the net on balls set by Elton Anderson to win the first set, 25-18.
Kerwin Palacio, Lirisi Cayetano, Eleazar Mejia, Richard Vasquez and Edgar “Indio” Martinez rallied the Eagles’ counterattack, spiking hits at the net on plays set by Francis Usher to take the 2nd set, 25-18.
Brandon Fehr, Christian Dyck, Daniel Musa, Lawrence Mahler and libero Michael Jenkins came off the All Stars’ bench to help win the 3rd set, 25-19.
However, Marlon Salazar, Darwin Palacio and Randall Wainwright rallied the Eagles’ counterattack, as Leonardo Riverol and Kori Gomez took the court to help the Eagles prevail 25-23 in the 4th set and win the decisive 5th set, 17-15.
NEXGEN awarded team trophies and individual medals to the 3 champions in each category.