After 17 years with the Kenyan national team, setter Janet Wanja has announced her retirement.
The 33 year old is worried about the future of the national team mainly because she thinks that the new generation of players don’t know the value of HARD WORK.
“Majority of these young players like easy life. They don’t want to train hard to rightfully earn their positions in the squad and my fear is, when I retire and Wacu (Jane) follows, our team will struggle.
As much as we want young players to come in, if they will not put in enough effort in training and have that self discipline, then we’ll not go far. To those saying that we are old just because we’ve played for so many years for the national team, they should also challenge these young players to work hard to earn their positions, not being favored just because they are young. Age is just a number.
Even though many people are criticizing coaches that they are not doing enough to recruit young players, for me we have so many young players, the right height but in my opinion, are pampered and don’t know the meaning of hard work.”
A couple of her great accomplishments with Kenya are competing at the 2004 Olympics when she was only a high school student and winning the 2015 FIVB World Grand Prix Group 3 Gold Medal.
Sadly, Kenya has withdrawn from this year’s edition due to lack of funds and still owing the FIVB almost US$78,000. Colombia has taken their spot in the prestigious annual tournament.
It’s such a sadddddddddddd week for Kenyan volleyball and also for African volleyball.
Hope it all gets better!
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