Mulinge ready to rebuild at KPA as key players exit

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) men's volleyball team head coach Sammy Mulinge has his work cut out in the new season as he begins his title campaign without some of his key players.

The Mombasa-based side are without the services of national team skipper Enock Mogeni, who joined Japanese-side Oita Miyoshi Weisse Adler after guiding KPA to a second-place finish last season.

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Mogeni's replacement at the dockers, Peter Kamara was also snatched up in November by Bahrain where he is featuring for top-tier league side Nabih Saleh for the 2022-23 season that served off on 1 November 2022.

Joining the growing list of Kenyan volleyballers landing professional deals in 2022 is Dennis Omollo, the outside hitter having joined Iraqi side Al Bahri Club earlier this week.

"It is not easy losing three key players before the start of the season. The 2023 season will be a tough one for KPA as we have to replace these players and that is not something that can easily be done for such top-notch talents. We are also anticipating one more exit and that puts us in an awkward position," Mulinge admitted.

The replacement of the three has been made even tougher for the tactician by the fact that there was a break in school games occasioned by the Covid-19 break. 

"We get most of our talented players from the school competitions. Not having that in 2020 and 2021 and the 2022 games coming late in the year meant most students in their final year missed out on all the action. 

There is alot of good talent displayed during the 2022 school games but most of these players are still in school so we cannot have them at the moment. We will, however, do the best we can to revamp the team. We are back to where we were in 201ol9, rebuilding, and that requires patience," the tactician added. 

KPA were set to open their season in Mosoriot on 9 December against Prisons Mombasa but the match was rescheduled.