T&T se­nior net­ball team cap­tain de­fend­er Shaquan­da Greene-Noel is back for her sec­ond sea­son with the Celtic Drag­ons for the up­com­ing sea­son of the Vi­tal­i­ty Net­ball Su­per­league (VNSL) in Eng­land.

The “Queen of the hus­tle” or “Quan­da” as she is af­fec­tion­ate­ly known fol­low­ing her out­stand­ing de­fen­sive per­for­mance in her de­but sea­son, ear­li­er this year, will fea­ture again on the de­fen­sive unit for the “Green Army”.

The lone Wales-based team in the 11-team VNSL an­nounced their squad last week and added that Greene-Noel’s re­turn to Cardiff “was nev­er in doubt”.

“A high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed re­union and an ab­solute plea­sure to re­cap­ture the in­domitable spir­it of the Drag­on,” said the T&T cap­tain, whose Drag­ons will com­pete against Leeds Rhi­nos, Lon­don Pulse, Lough­bor­ough Light­ning, Man­ches­ter Thun­der, Sara­cens Mav­er­icks, Sev­ern Stars, Strath­clyde Sirens, Sur­rey Storm, Team Bath Net­ball and Wasps.

Greene-Noel, the Green Army’s “Play­er of the Sea­son” has been busy in her off-sea­son lead­ing the “Ca­lyp­so Girls” at the Com­mon­wealth Games in Birm­ing­ham, Eng­land in Ju­ly/Au­gust.

She will next lead the na­tion­al team to the World Cup Qual­i­fiers set to take place in Ja­maica, next month.

“I’ve been work­ing out to re­gain and main­tain fit­ness for the up­com­ing World Cup Qual­i­fiers in Oc­to­ber. Most of my team­mates from Drag­ons have al­ready start­ed pre-sea­son train­ing which looks very dif­fer­ent from my train­ing regime be­cause I’m still in com­pe­ti­tion mode.

“How­ev­er, I’ve been work­ing close­ly with my strength and con­di­tion­ing coach from the Drag­ons, Dai (Watts), and TTNA’s (T&T Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion) phys­io­ther­a­pist Kern (Mal­oney) to see what works best for my body,” said Greene-Noel, on Mon­day.

“It’s been an ex­treme­ly long year for me, from the 2022 VNSL sea­son to Com­mon­wealth Games and now the World Cup Qual­i­fiers. I’ve on­ly re­al­ly had one week com­plete­ly off for my wed­ding an­niver­sary. Def­i­nite­ly fo­cus­ing on the now to en­sure my body and the girls are ready for the Qual­i­fiers but can’t say I’m not look­ing for­ward to my very short pre-sea­son be­fore re­turn­ing to the UK to com­mence the 2023 sea­son.”

The T&T de­fend­er had a dream start to her de­but sea­son, fea­tur­ing among the top per­form­ers on the VNSL sta­tis­tics ta­bles. Last sea­son, she topped the stats for most turnovers (forc­ing teams to turn over the ball) with 119, and was in the top three for most in­ter­cepts (57) and de­flec­tions (93). She al­so won three VSNL “Play­er of the Match” awards.

“It’s al­ways a perk to be in the top five for stats but I hate to put un­nec­es­sary pres­sure on my­self. Once I put in the work the sta­tis­tics will take care of them­selves. (The) 2022 sea­son I was just soak­ing up the ex­pe­ri­ence of be­ing a pro­fes­sion­al ath­lete. 2023, God’s will­ing, I’m more fo­cused and dis­ci­plined.

“I know what it takes for me to dom­i­nate and I’m go­ing to make those sac­ri­fices. The ex­tra ear­ly morn­ing ses­sions when no one is watch­ing, the gym ses­sions, di­et, every­thing, I’m all in.

“We’re no longer a ‘new’ team and I’m go­ing to do my part to en­sure that it’s re­flect­ed on the score­board,” said the Queen of the hus­tle, who is pumped and ready for sea­son two with her Celtic Drag­ons.