In addition to preparing the Barbados team physically for the 2012 Caribbean Netball Association Jean Pierre Under-16 Tournament, management will also have to deal more with the mental side of preparation.
Prior to departure for St Kitts, head coach Julie Phillips had been concerned about the shooting. Yesterday when the second-placed team returned home, she told the media that another area of concern developed as the tournament progressed.
“I saw an improvement in the accuracy of the shooters. I guess as the tournament went on, the concentration of one or two of them started to wane.
“From that aspect of it, we need to focus a bit more on concentrating for longer periods because they are not necessarily accustomed to playing netball every day, morning and evening, for the duration of the week.
“Coming on to the end of the week, some of them lost sight of the focus,” Phillips said.
The coach said they had been aiming for the No. 1 spot but with the movement of players each year, it was difficult to predict who would be stronger.
This year, St Lucia emerged victorious.“I am satisfied with the effort and the standard of play produced by the girls. There were a few occasions when we didn’t necessarily do what we were supposed to do; but overall I thought that they fought really hard and down to the end, so we are satisfied with that.”
Co-captains Tyniesha Rowe and Shanice Wharton both said the tournament was challenging, especially the challenge from St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, who were third for the third consecutive year.
Rowe felt the team had been hard done by, especially in regard to the officiating in the final match against Trinidad, but Phillips said that wasn’t thinking they wanted to encourage.
“I tend not to focus on the officiating of tournaments because the umpires have their job to do and the players have their job to do. Once we start encouraging players or athletes in general to focus on officiating, they lose sight of what they are supposed to do.
“You are out there to do a job, stick to the task and whatever happens, at the end of the game we will be victorious,” the coach said.
While unwilling to pinpoint the organizational challenges of this year’s tournament, Phillips said it needed more structure because this was still the best showcase for the region’s Under-16 players.
Barbados were second overall and the team also collected trophies for the Most Disciplined side and the Team Shooting Competition.
Wharton, Rowe, Sadé Browne, Sheniqua Thomas and Tia Jones were named among the top 17 best players.
Meanwhile, seven players from this year’s group will be returning as Rowe, Wharton, Sadé Sargeant, Makaela Rudder and Vanessa Reid-Cox have all played in their final tournament.
Bermuda won the development league, followed by St Kitts, Guyana and Anguilla.Next year’s tournament will be held in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Summarized scores: Trinidad and Tobago 31 (Jameela McCarthy 24/31, Kalifa McCollin 7/11). Barbados 30 (Shonica Wharton 1/ 5, Sheniqua Thomas 18/23, Vanessa Reid-Cox 11/17).
Quarter scores: 7-4, 17-10, 23-19. St Lucia 51 (Jo-Ann Anderson 20/30, Ianna Hippolyte 31/40). Dominica 8 (Nakima Honore 3/5, Sara Baptiste 5/11).
Quarter scores: 13-2, 26-6, 38-6 Bermuda 21, Guyana 15
St Kitts 27, Anguilla 5
