Every 2 years the NORCECA Volleyball Confederation celebrates it’s Continental Senior Championships and 2005 offer the next opportunity for our men’s team to compete for continental supremacy. The NORCECA Volleyball Federation is the FIVB Continental Zone that Canada belongs to, which includes countries from North and Central America, and the Caribbean. This championship will be the first time since 1995 that a Senior NORCECA Championship has been held in Canada, and will be a great opportunity to carry over the excitement from the World Champion qualifiers held the month earlier. The 2005 NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship will include the following 8 teams: Canada, Cuba, USA, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Barbados, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. The event will not only determine the newest continental champion and provide the top teams with valuable world ranking points, but will reward the winner of the event with a berth into the 2005 World Grand Champions Cup to be held that November in Japan. At the last NORCECA Championships in 2003 Canada finished 2nd, losing to the USA in a close final. The only 2 men’s teams that have ever won this championship have been the USA & Cuba, and after coming so close 2 years ago, the Canadian Men feel they have some unfinished business to take care of. A further draw to this event includes the host site being at the newly opened MTS Centre, a bright, new sports, entertainment and performing-arts facility that occupies a premiere location at the heart of Winnipeg's downtown.