Netball Jamaica hits back

Netball Jamaica has hit back at former coach Connie Francis after she said yesterday that there were people within the organisation who did not want her to coach the national senior team.

Francis' outburst came after she was overlooked for the vacant Sunshine Girls job.

Francis who has been coaching for more than 20 years, was among three candidates that were interviewed for the post, which has been vacant since Minneth Reynolds resigned last November. Netball Jamaica announced Englishwoman Jermaine Allison-McCracken as the new coach on Wednesday night.

"At first I was told that it was a board decision but deep down in the back of my head, I think that the technical person must have a say in who coaches our national team," said Francis.

BLAME YOURSELF

"I realised from Fast5 Championships that Netball Jamaica really don't want me to be a part of their coaching staff," she added.

However, Netball Jamaica's public relations officer, Wayne Lewis, said Francis should blame herself and not the association for her failure to get the job.

"If Netball Jamaica didn't want Connie Francis, we would have just accepted the recommendations from the technical committee, employed Mrs McCracken and move on," said Lewis.

"But the fact that we opened up, was to give Connie Francis another opportunity since based on the reports from the technical committee Mrs McCracken was a lot stronger than her in the interviews," he said.

Meanwhile, Netball Jamaica said Allison-McCracken would be in charge for a six-month probation period.

In their release on Wednesday, Netball Jamaica said Allison-McCracken who is of Jamaican parentage, brings to the position substantial training in the areas of sports psychology and netball coaching. She holds a United Kingdom Level 2 coaching certificate and has vast experience in game introduction and netball skills development at different levels.