Netball Jamaica wants technical director, assistant coach

PRESIDENT OF Netball Jamaica (NJ), Tricia Robinson, says her organisation is now actively seeking funding to employ the services of a technical director, as well as an assistant coach, for the national senior netball team.

Robinson told The Sunday Gleaner that these two positions will form critical components of the Sunshine Girls’ development and form them to win a medal at next year’s Commonwealth Games, which will be held in Birmingham, England.

The netball body has been without a technical director since Maureen Hall left the post a few years ago, while the national senior team has been without an assistant coach after Winston Nevers’ contract was not renewed after the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool, England.

“We need support and we need an assistant coach, along with specialist coaches in respective areas,” said Robinson. “We need a technical director on board to guide the process and we need financial assistance to get this done,” she said.

“We currently don’t have the funding to employ a technical director and an assistant coach and so we are trying to identify the funding to get this in place,” Robinson said.

The NJ boss pointed out that she is appealing to corporate Jamaica to get on board and support the national programme because these women have always done well for the country on the international stage.

Need all the funding

“There is enough time for people to get on board and support the programmes because the Commonwealth Games is some months away and therefore we need all the funding that we can get to help us to do well,” Robinson said.

“We welcome anybody who wants to come on board and we do need you to come on board and support the programmes,” she said.

“Every time the girls have been asked to perform, they do so and they give 110 per cent, and if they do get the assistance, I am sure that they can compete with the top nations in the world,” Robinson said.

The Sunshine Girls, who rank fourth in the world, went down 2-1 to host and third-ranked England in their just-concluded three-Test series.

The series forms part of their preparations for the next year’s Commonwealth Games and captain Jhaniele Fowler said they still have a lot of work to do.

“We have a lot of work to do because, even without playing this series, we know we have some amount of work to do before this Commonwealth Games,” Fowler said.

“We need to put in a lot more training and we need to be playing a lot more games going into the Commonwealth Games, and hopefully that will be set up for us so that we can be able to do well,” noted Fowler.

robert.bailey@gleanerjm.com