While everyone was still getting to terms with Nemostars making the playoffs of the 2015 National Volleyball League, the Kololo side went a step further and made the finals and eventually winning it at the expense of Sport-S early this month.
Nemostars had struggled all season, losing five games of the 22 they played in the regular season.
Teams like Sky and UCU Doves were tipped to finish in the top four ahead of the 2016 African Club Championship bound side.
While the George Aporu captained side had doubters around the volleyball fraternity, they silently plotted on getting their act together.
Being written off the league was our biggest motivation, it really evoked the hunger in us. Then as a team we decided to improve our service and net defense, and those are the two areas that won us the game
Actually Aporu was very instrumental for Nemostars, not on attack, not on reception, not on the block but also in the service box throughout the playoffs.
One notable incident was in game two of the finals when Nemostars trailed 8-4 in the decisive set, Aporu made seven consecutive serves to get his side back into the game (11-8) before sealing the tie 15-13.
We trained really hard the whole of second leg of the season, we made a very slight change in our movement. I switched positions with Tom Amou from attacker receiver to receiver attacker going into the playoffs
Aporu told Kawowo Sports in an exclusive interview before adding.
We even introduced Ojamuge (Eric) in the middle ahead of Fahad Zungu, yet we had not used him throughout the season, but also Masaba (Wilfred) has been an inspiration for the team on net defense.”
The league title was only the third title Nemostars were winning this year after the KIU and UCU Open Championships.