JEDDAH, 23 March 2007 — One of the best Saudi blockers, who ranked fifth among Asian blockers at the 15th Asian Games, Esmael Al-Khaibary, 33, seeks to make volleyball more popular by his initiative to take the game to schools with his youth coaching program.

“This game is good and they would love it but we need to introduce it more to the public and children in schools,” said the Al-Khaibary when asked how he hopes to make the sport more popular.

Al-Khaibary said he never thought of taking up the sport till he saw two teams playing. He asked the coach if he could join and when he was allowed to he picked up the nuances of the game so fast that he started reveling and excelling in it.

He says he is glad that he joined Al-Ahli club then and has now been playing for the Jeddah outfit for 14 years. In less than two years after taking to the game he joined the national team and has followed the advice of his Serbian coach Radoslav Svircev on concentrating on is forte of blocking and short spikes.

At the Arab Championship for Clubs in 2006, Ahli won the title with Al-Khaibary at his best. He also played with a Qatari club in their Crown Prince Cup and was on the victorious side. He was appointed the captain of the team this year and along with his team secured a silver medal at the Arab Championship in Bahrain and afterward a bronze, for the first in the history of Saudi Arabia, at the 15th Asian Games.

“I wanted to drop out of the training camp in Czech Republic due to my mother’s sudden illness but my team convinced me she would be OK and that they needed my guidance and wanted to be together as a team,” he said. Now, he is glad that he changed his mind and stayed on. “I cannot describe the happiness on our success.”

Volleyball is the game the 187cm athlete chose to be in and, he says, that the sport has opened for him many doors, among them a job where he can continue to practice his sport. After joining the national team he got a job offer at the Sport Affairs in the Air Force. He works and plays with the team whenever possible, especially during championship events.

The additional advantage of his job was the fact that it is a government job and when he represents the Kingdom it is easier for him then for many of his teammates to get leave for training camps and championships.

“The fun part is that we play with and against the same players who played at the national team and we have been together for eight years now,” he said. Most of the players have similar jobs and while some work at the Air Force, others at the marine, military and army. They compete against each other during the local championship and against other countries armed forces.

“It has been always Qatar who we really enjoy playing against and we give and play our best against tem,” said Al-Khaibary. Brazil is the best, but he said joking, “I do not want to meet them yet they would maul us.”

Al-Khaibary also said among the events he has participated in, the recent Asiad was defiantly the top of his list. Meeting China and Japan and such rivals was an experience. Though the Chinese know how to control or recover, “yet we won and that is what matters,” he said.

“We have strict rules not to bully or make eye contact with our opponents when our team secures a point; this is something all teams must follow.”

Speaking about the people who have played big roles in Al-Khaibary and his team’s achievements, he said thanks are due to Prince Nawwaf ibn Mohammed. Since the team won the title at the Arab Championship two years ago, the prince believed in them and has taken good care of them with support and encouragement while attending most of their matches. “This meant a lot to us,” he said.

Especially during the Asiad, some of the team players were injured, and when the prince got to know about it, Al-Khaibary said, “He sent us a German, Dr. Gunter, from the Eastern Province to Doha. The doctor treated us for our injuries. He also helped us to stay fit.”

The doctor, according to Al-Khaibary, played a psychological role no one was aware of when he removed all the tension and their fear during the day of their match against Japan.

“We were very tense but as we entered our rooms we saw the flag of Saudi Arabia placed on the wall and comments in English and Arabic posted including words like; ‘play for your country’, ‘play for our team players Majid and Yahya’ who were sick.”

It might be a simple thought for him, “but it totally changed our mood and we started laughing and won the game against one of the Asian champions!”

He also fondly remembers former coach Mr. Dai, as the team used to call him and now a Chinese expert in China, Algerian Abdullah Sultan and Ittihad Coach Abdullah Al-Sulaimani. “Them and Svircev, I owe them a lot. They made me what I am now,” he said.

There are people and personality you get used to and sometimes cannot continue without, he said and picked Saleh Al-Qasem the team manager of the volleyball national team for that accolade. “He thought of retiring, but we told him if you did we will do too, and Thank God he changed his mind.”

According to him, Al-Qasem plays the roles of brother, friend and coach, with the “benefit of the players being his top priority, and this is what any team needs,” he said.

Sports now has become more of a business investment and parents have started to invest their children’s future in football, and this saddens Al-Khaibary. The captain narrates that a father came to the club with his 12-year-old boy. When Al-Khaibary saw the boy’s height he suggested to the father to register him in volleyball. The father’s reply was, “Football does pay but volleyball doesn’t!”

Some parents are also afraid that their children would abandoned their education. But Al-Khaibary says that joining up for a sport and being committed shapes the individual’s personality and enables him to experience more life challenges with discipline and commitment. “Those who want to be better will always ake up a sport and those who do not, well, it is their loss,” he said.

He thanked his wife for supporting him as he built a sporting career and also for taking care of his two children Sultan, 4, and Juri, 2.

Al-Khaibary wishes that more clubs dedicate their attention to develop volleyball. “It has been always Ahli and Hilal who play the final. It is high time for more clubs to develop volleyball so we can have stronger and tougher competitors, and this in turn could spark interest among fans and younger enthusiasts. Thus opening up the sports to more players and followers.”