Clay­ton Clarke

Sports Cor­re­spon­dent

Bish­op’s High School of To­ba­go is the Na­tion­al Sec­ondary Schools Net­ball League Girls’ 20 & Un­der cham­pi­ons for yet an­oth­er year af­ter beat­ing Holy Name Con­vent of Port-of-Spain 15-5 in the gold medal match on the third and fi­nal day of the 2023 com­pe­ti­tion at the South­west Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Egypt Vil­lage, Point Fortin, on Thurs­day.

Bish­op’s opened a 7-1 lead at the half-time in­ter­val with cap­tain and goal-shoot Sha­nia Abra­ham and goal-at­tack Keiko Roy lead­ing the shoot­ing.

Goal­keep­er Xhane Gray mar­shalled the Bish­op’s’ de­fence as the win­ners went to take se­cure the crown.

Wing-at­tack Addi­nae Sylvester copped the Most Valu­able Play­er (MVP) ac­co­lade af­ter the To­ba­go cham­pi­ons played un­beat­en on the day’s pro­gramme.

Holy Name Con­vent of Port-of-Spain im­proved on their third-place fin­ish in 2022 while San Juan North Sec­ondary School took the bronze medals af­ter get­ting past Diego Mar­tin North Sec­ondary School 9-6.

In the group match­es, Bish­op’s topped Group A with vic­to­ries over San Juan North Sec­ondary (11-5) and Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary (21-3) to ad­vance to the fi­nals.

San Juan North Sec­ondary was whipped by Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary 13-3. The fourth team in the group, St Joseph Con­vent of St Joseph, was dis­qual­i­fied from the com­pe­ti­tion af­ter field­ing a play­er who com­pet­ed in the 15 & Un­der com­pe­ti­tion the day be­fore.

Holy Name Con­vent of Port-of-Spain led the way in Group B with wins against San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary (11-6), Diego Mar­tin North Sec­ondary (12-1), and North East­ern Col­lege (17-6).

Diego Mar­tin North Sec­ondary de­feat­ed North East­ern Col­lege (10-5) and drew with San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec (7-7).

In the shoot­ing com­pe­ti­tion which took place in the morn­ing ses­sion of the day’s pro­gramme, Roy was first with 41 goals with To­co Sec­ondary’s Bri­an­na Moreno sec­ond (36) and Chama­ra Fran­cis of Holy Name Con­vent of Port-of-Spain in third (35).

Akeshi Quashie of Bish­op’s High School (33) end­ed in fourth. Roy won the Girls 15 & Un­der Shoot­ing crown in 2022.

Roy, Quashie, and Cap­tain Abra­ham com­bined to en­sure the Bish­op’s re­tained the team shoot­ing ho­n­ours with 103 goals. Bon Air Sec­ondary land­ed the sec­ond spot (87) leav­ing Rio Claro West Sec­ondary (84) with the bronze.

Bish­op’s of To­ba­go emerged as the top school in the tour­na­ment af­ter de­fend­ing the Girls’ 13 & Un­der ti­tle and cap­tur­ing the first-ever Boys’ Open Di­vi­sion on Tues­day.

The school’s 15 & Un­der ladies were un­able to re­peat as cham­pi­ons and had to set­tle for third be­hind win­ners Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral Sec­ondary and Rio Claro East Sec­ondary on Wednes­day. In the shoot­ing con­test, Bish­op’s swept the girls’ team stand­ings for a sec­ond straight year af­ter re­tain­ing the Girls’ 13 & Un­der, 15 & Un­der, and 20 & Un­der tro­phies. Bish­op’s Boys had to set­tle for third be­hind Bel­mont Boys and Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral Sec­ondary.

Bish­op’s took three of the four MVP tro­phies—Khe­myah An­der­son (Girls’ 13 and Un­der), Addi­nae Sylvester (Girls’ 20 and Un­der) and Solomon Okali (Boys’ Open). Daneill Zamore of Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral Sec­ondary was named the Girls 15 & Un­der MVP.

Among those present at the fi­nals were the pres­i­dent of the Amer­i­c­as Net­ball Fed­er­a­tion Dr Brid­get Adams, the pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion Sher­ry-Ann Black­burn, and for­mer cap­tain of the na­tion­al se­nior women’s net­ball team Ani­ka La Roche.

Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral Sec­ondary School won the Girls’ 15 & Un­der di­vi­sion on the sec­ond day of the Na­tion­al Sec­ondary Schools Net­ball League fi­nals at the South­west Re­gion­al In­door Sport­ing Are­na in Point Fortin on No­vem­ber 15.

Diego Cen­tral beat Rio Claro East Sec­ondary School in the fi­nals 9-3.

De­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Bish­op’s High School fin­ished in third with a 6-2 vic­to­ry over St Joseph Con­vent, St Joseph.

The Diego Mar­tin team raised eye­brows when they de­feat­ed reign­ing cham­pi­ons Bish­op’s High School 8-6 in their first match of the day.

Cap­tain Re­bekah Brizan and Jo­ni­ah Be­har­ry led the shoot­ing with Wing At­tack Ani­ka Collins, who had an out­stand­ing per­for­mance.

Goal De­fence Danielle Zamore was ex­cel­lent in mark­ing out Bish­ops ace shoot­er Ja­da King.

Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral then fol­lowed with tri­umphs over fel­low Port-of-Spain and En­vi­rons team Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary (18-10) and St Joseph Con­vent, San Fer­nan­do (12-7) to top Group B as the lone un­beat­en team.

Bish­op’s High end­ed in sec­ond af­ter re­cov­er­ing to beat St Joseph Con­vent, San Fer­nan­do 16-6 and drew 13-13 with Suc­cess Laven­tille.