Na­tion­al Un­der-16 net­ball cap­tain Patrice Ash­by and her team­mates, prepar­ing for the up­com­ing Caribbean Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CNA) Jean Pierre Youth Net­ball Cham­pi­onships in Do­mini­ca, on Wednes­day, were giv­en a boost from the Sports Com­pa­ny of T&T (SporTT).

SporTT pre­sent­ed the T&T Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNA) with sup­port in the amount of $48,600 to­wards the Youth Tour­na­ment to be held from March 24-30. The na­tion­al U-16 team will par­tic­i­pate in the an­nu­al event which was on hia­tus for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Justin Lat­apy-George, head of Sport De­vel­op­ment at SporTT, which serves as the con­duit of de­vel­op­ment and com­pe­ti­tion fund­ing for the na­tion­al gov­ern­ing bod­ies (NG­Bs) un­der its purview, com­mend­ed the TTNA for its con­tin­ued thrust to de­vel­op and nur­ture youth tal­ent. Lat­apy-George al­so in­di­cat­ed that the com­plete ap­proved sum for the As­so­ci­a­tion is $557,763.92, the bal­ance of which will be dis­bursed up­on re­lease from the Min­istry of Fi­nance.

Present at the cheque han­dover at the Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre in Bal­main, Cou­va was Ash­by, a first-time mem­ber of the na­tion­al team and the TTNA pres­i­dent Sher­ry Ann Black­burn.

Ash­by said she was sur­prised at the se­lec­tion but is grate­ful for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to rep­re­sent her coun­try on a re­gion­al lev­el. The St Fran­cois Girls Col­lege stu­dent, who plays at wing-at­tack or cen­tre po­si­tions on the court, said she was ex­cit­ed about the tour­na­ment and con­fi­dent that the hard work be­ing put in will pay off.

Black­burn was al­so in high praise for the work eth­ic of the U-16 team, which is a di­verse one, in­clud­ing six play­ers from To­ba­go. They are shoot­ers Ake­si Quashie, Keiko Roy, and Ja­da King, cen­tre court play­ers Khe­myah An­der­son, and Zaria Ar­mour and de­fend­er Xhané Gray. The oth­ers are Danya May­ers, Adri­ana Moreno, Khali Stephen­son, Princess Tay­lor, De­ne­sa Ha­gley, Shi­an Lewis, Aneisha Hyles and Ka­ri­na Alex­is.

Black­burn al­so said that Trinidad and To­ba­go’s par­tic­i­pa­tion at the tour­na­ment was one step to­wards build­ing con­fi­dence and pride in the sport ahead of the Net­ball World Cup to be held in South Africa from 28 Ju­ly to 6 Au­gust 2023.

For­mer na­tion­al cap­tain Lystra Solomon-Sim­mons is the head coach, with Liselle John­son, as the as­sis­tant coach and Cather­ine John as the man­ag­er.

At the last edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion in 2019, the ju­nior “Ca­lyp­so Girls” end­ed in sec­ond place be­hind Bar­ba­dos in the round-robin sev­en-team com­pe­ti­tion. T&T’s on­ly loss was against the Bar­ba­di­ans to fin­ish ahead of third-placed St Lu­cia. Do­mini­ca was fourth, Bermu­da end­ed fifth, with Grena­da and An­tigua and Bar­bu­da in sixth and sev­enth place, re­spec­tive­ly. The then-de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Ja­maica, a 12-time win­ner, missed the tour­na­ment. An­tigua and Bar­bu­da have pulled out of the com­pe­ti­tion.

Na­tion­al U-16 team

Shoot­ers: Danya May­ers, Adri­ana Moreno, Ake­si Quashie, Keiko Roy, Ja­da King

Cen­tre court: Pa­tryce Ash­by (cap­tain), Khali Stephen­son, Princess Tay­lor, Khe­myah An­der­son, Zaria Ar­mour

De­fend­ers: Xhané Gray, De­ne­sa Ha­gley, Shi­an Lewis, Aneisha Hyles, Ka­ri­na Alex­is

Tech­ni­cal staff: Lystra Solomon-Sim­mons (coach), Liselle John­son (as­sis­tant coach), Cather­ine John (man­ag­er), Abe­jah John­son (train­er), David R. Mack (phys­io­ther­a­pist)