The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER completing his tenure at Florida State College at Jacksonville, Bahamian coach Edric ‘Drips’ Poitier turned his attention to his Powers Volleyball Club in Jacksonville, Florida in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Poitier, who left FSC at the end of the Bluewaves’ season in November, is contemplating his next coaching move at the collegiate level. But he was happy to work with his PCV team as they participated in an under-15 girls’ AAU Tournament in Orlando, Florida two weeks ago.

“I have some offers on the table but their season was cancelled because of Covid-19, so they are not hiring anybody until January,” Poitier said.

“So I’m just waiting to see what happens. There’s not a whole lot going on right now. I’m just coaching club volleyball right now.”

Since he left FSC, Poitier has been involved in the PVC programme in Jacksonville, but he could be moving back to West Virginia at the end of the month with his wife and family to coach another club programme there if he doesn’t secure a collegiate coaching job.

Poitier, who has amassed 14 years of head coaching experience at the NCAA Division I and II as well as the junior college level, took PVC to the AAU Nationals in Orlando where they won their bracket.

In the new norm created as a result of the pandemic, Poitier said they played in a similar bubble like the NBA and the WNBA are doing. He noted that they get their temperature checked before every game a d if one player have any symptoms, the entire team is eliminated.

“They had the gym set up unusual from having the courts side by side,” he noted of the four-day tournament. “They staggered them almost like a checker board with one court here and the other spaced out. Even the chairs were separated. I thought it was well organized.

“They didn’t allow all of the teams in the gym all at once. There was a morning wave, a mid-morning wave, an afternoon wave and an evening wave in a big convention center where they sanitized it after every game. Everybody had to wear a mast unless you were a player on the court playing.”

If this is any indication of what to expect moving forward, Poitier said he could see the process working for volleyball, which won’t be adversely affected because it’s a non-contact sport.

“You only have players on the opposite side of the court, but those players on each team practice and play together,” he stated. “So they have been around each other the entire time.

“Even when they get to the arena, they don’t have to mingle with the players from the opposite team. So it’s a lot safer than basketball where they have to get on the court and mix and mingle with other kids. So I think it could work. I think the AAU tournament was the prototype for teams to see how they can run their tournaments and championships to get through a season.”

Volleyball, however, is one of those sports in the collegiate ranks, that has been put off until January because of the spread of the coronavirus since the outbreak in March when all sports worldwide came to a halt.

In the meantime, Poitier said he’s weighing out all of his options, which include a return to junior college where he get to spend more time developing players as he does with his PVC programme.

Prior to going to FSC, Poitier enjoyed a sting of coaching experience at Savannah State University, Bluefield State College, Winston-Salem State University and St. Augustine’s College, now St. Augustine University where Bahamian Tacara Moxey, who played for him, is the new head coach.

Poitier, a former officer in the Royal Bahamas Police Force, player as a setter from 1979-92 before he served as the head coach for the women’s national team from 1992-99