Saudi female volleyball players fired up for a future in sports

JEDDAH: A career in sport has become a reality for Saudi women and girls due to the country’s social reforms and also the grassroot efforts and energy of women seeking out those with the same sporting interest and growing a community around it.

The story of Jeddah volleyball team Blue Clickers started like this — with the passion of the team’s founder and coach Dana Mohsen. She was looking for people with the same interests as her and started building up a squad. “At a dolphin show, the sound they make while passing the ball is called a click and that is where we derived our name from, Blue Clickers,” she told Arab News. “We have always watched other sports grow with time and we were always waiting for volleyball to come out professionally as a sport.”

Blue Clickers were formed in Dec. 2020, and the Saudi Volleyball Federation launched the Kingdom’s first open volleyball tournament for women last September at Riyadh’s Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, with Blue Clickers taking part. There was a competition in Jeddah and in other places, with two teams from each region qualifying for the next round at the tournament.

• Blue Clickers were formed in Dec. 2020, and the Saudi Volleyball Federation launched the Kingdom’s first open volleyball tournament for women last September at Riyadh’s Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, with Blue Clickers taking part.

• One of the Blue Kickers’ highlights was getting to play for the Ministry of Sports earlier this year in February.

• In Jan. 2021 the sports minister said that female participation in sport in Saudi Arabia had shot up by almost 150 percent since 2015.

“Our team was one of the teams that qualified for the next round in Riyadh. We had a great