PREPARATION for the Caribbean Volleyball Championships this summer is in high gear as the Jamaica Volleyball Association on Sunday signalled its intention for the team to go farther than ever this year when they announced that collegiate volleyball sensation Jamion Hartley has been called up to the national team.

Hartley, a Jamaican by birth, has been living in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America since moving there with his family when he was seven years old.

After being persuaded to play volleyball while in the eighth grade at high school, Hartley’s raw talent and skill exploded, and he was voted most valuable player in his senior year.

He has spent the last four years dominating the collegiate circuit and honing his skills while attending Ball State University (BSU), one of the top-ranked colleges in volleyball in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). While at BSU, he made a name for himself wracking up double-digit kills in matches at a dizzying rate.

His 30 kills in his 10th match under the BSU banner still holds the number two spot for most kills in a match. The six-foot-seven left-handed outside hitter also has impressive stats in aces and digs, which are made all the more impressive by his recent revelation that until that fateful day when his high school volleyball coaches convinced him to give the sport a try, he was determined to become a professional basketball player.

“I was one of those kids that practised in the snow, I really wanted to make it, but I think it burned me out at an early age,” he said in a recent interview.

Having been convinced to give volleyball a try, Hartley said he simply fell in love with the sport, and has not looked back since.

His exploits on the court have not gone unnoticed, and he was recently recruited to play professionally for VCA Amstetten Volleyball Club in Austria. At the end of the professional circuit in May, Hartley, who lived at Brotherton Avenue in Kingston in his childhood years, will be reuniting with his countrymen as they try to best their Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) counterparts to take top honours at Caribbean Volleyball Championships in Trinidad in July of this year.