Bish­op Anstey High School East and St. Joseph Col­lege, St Joseph opened with wins in Wednes­day's open­ing of the T&T Sec­ondary Schools Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion - St George East Ed­u­ca­tion­al Dis­trict League at the Mal­oney In­door Sports Are­na (MISA), Mal­oney.

In the first match, Bish­op East, coached by for­mer na­tion­al se­nior coach Althea Mc­Collin, de­feat­ed Barataria North 20-3 in the 20 and Un­der Di­vi­sion, fol­lowed by St Joseph Col­lege's 13-3 win over San Juan North in the 15 and Un­der cat­e­go­ry.

The four schools par­tic­i­pat­ed in the pa­rade of the teams be­fore fac­ing off in their re­spec­tive match­es. 

Tu­na­puna Sec­ondary School, El Do­ra­do East, and Bon Air Sec­ondary were the oth­er schools tak­ing part in the "Walk Past" to sig­nal the start of the 2024 sea­son.

Pres­i­dent of the St. George's East Sec­ondary Schools As­so­ci­a­tion, Amoy Isha Jef­frey, two oth­er schools will al­so take part in the com­pe­ti­tion: Mt Hope Sec­ondary and St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary.

"This is the first time St George East has had an open­ing for the longest time. We had eight or nine schools at the open­ing. It was a very good turnout," said Jef­frey on Wednes­day. 

"We've al­ready got a great start. The chil­dren are en­joy­ing the games," she said.

The schools will com­pete in the round-robin com­pe­ti­tion in three di­vi­sions—13, 15 and 20 and un­der—at three venues, St. Joseph Col­lege, Scherzan­do Pan Yard in Curepe and Mal­oney.

"I just would like peo­ple to come out and sup­port the young peo­ple. This is about the young peo­ple. It keeps them away from neg­a­tiv­i­ty in the world, and if we can show the pos­i­tive with these young peo­ple, it would be bet­ter for us," said Jef­frey.

On Sep­tem­ber 13, the Port-of-Spain and En­vi­rons Ed­u­ca­tion­al Dis­trict League opened with ac­tion in the Un­der-20 Di­vi­sion at St Paul Street Sports Com­plex.

Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral scored a huge 74-5 over Prov­i­dence, Holy Name topped Tran­quil­li­ty 21-5, and St Fran­cois Girls and Diego Mar­tin North played to an 8-8 draw.

On Sep­tem­ber 19, Blan­chisseuse went un­der to Prov­i­dence Girls 11-8 in the lone match played at the St Paul Street Fa­cil­i­ty. The match-up be­tween Holy Name Con­vent and St Fran­cois Girls was post­poned to to­day at Nel­son Man­dela Park, St Clair.

In the dou­ble-head­er at Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral Sec­ondary School, the host team beat Tran­quil­li­ty 29-5, and Diego Mar­tin North de­feat­ed East Mu­cu­rapo, 15-8.

Ahead of the start of the re­spec­tive leagues, a no­tice was sent out to par­ents and stu­dents from Net­ball T&T (NTT), for­mer­ly T&T Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNA), un­der the head­ing "Trinidad and To­ba­go Sec­ondary Schools net­ball is cur­rent­ly un­sanc­tioned.".

It stat­ed, "No­tice to all mem­bers and stake­hold­ers of NTT, di­rect and in­di­rect.".

"Net­ball Trinidad and To­ba­go (NTT) wish­es to in­form all mem­bers and stake­hold­ers that the T&T Sec­ondary Schools Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion is cur­rent­ly an un­sanc­tioned as­so­ci­a­tion. This sta­tus re­mains in ef­fect un­til fur­ther no­tice.

"As a re­sult, mem­bers of NTT, in­clud­ing but not lim­it­ed to of­fi­cials, play­ers, ap­pointees, rep­re­sen­ta­tives, con­trac­tors, af­fil­i­ates, vol­un­teers, mem­bers, coach­es, train­ers, man­agers, um­pires, match of­fi­cials, and med­ical per­son­nel, are here­by pro­hib­it­ed from par­tic­i­pat­ing in any ca­pac­i­ty in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Sec­ondary Schools Net­ball League or any oth­er un­sanc­tioned event.

It added: "Net­ball Trinidad and To­ba­go main­tains this po­si­tion to en­sure the in­tegri­ty, safe­ty, and reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance of all com­pe­ti­tions and ac­tiv­i­ties with­in the sport. Mem­bers found par­tic­i­pat­ing in un­sanc­tioned events may face dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion in ac­cor­dance with NTT’s poli­cies and reg­u­la­tions."

How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia has learnt that this de­ci­sion tak­en by the Sher­ry-Ann Black­burn-led as­so­ci­a­tion was not rat­i­fied by coun­cil.

Re­sults

ST GEORGE'S EAST DIS­TRICT

20 and Un­der

Barataria North 3 vs Bish­ops 20

15 and Un­der

St Joseph Col­lege 13 vs San Juan South 3

To­day's match

15 and Un­der

Tu­na­puna Sec­ondary vs St Joseph Col­lege, Scherzan­do Pan Yard, Curepe, 12.30 pm.

PORT-OF-SPAIN AND EN­VI­RONS DIS­TRICT

Sep­tem­ber 19: Un­der-20

Blan­chisseuse 8 vs 11 Prov­i­dence Girls 11

Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral 29 vs Tran­quil­i­ty 5

Diego Mar­tin North 15 vs East Mu­cu­rapo 8

Sep­tem­ber 13: Un­der-20

East Mu­cu­rapo vs Blan­chisseuse. East Mu­cu­rapo won by de­fault

Prov­i­dence 5 vs Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral 74

St Fran­cois 8 vs Diego Mar­tin North 8

Holy Name 21 vs Tran­quil­i­ty 5

Match­es

Oc­to­ber 2

15 and Un­der Div

Diego Mar­tin North vs Wood­brook, Wood­brook Sec­ondary School

Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral vs St Fran­cois, St James Sec­ondary School

St James vs Mu­cu­rapo West, St James Sec­ondary School