Netball in Saint Lucia is moving in the right direction, with more senior players returning and many young players eager to join in. Safiya Paul, vice president of Netball Saint Lucia, shared this after the latest Coast 2 Coast Netball Tournament held Saturday at the Vigie Multipurpose Sports Complex.
“The new executive hadn’t really done anything in terms of playing locally,” she said. “So, it was very important to us to start that back, start that back, Coast-to-Coast, in order for us to go to different areas, get the young people back into the game, get some more vibrancy in the game.
“Netball has been, quote-unquote, dead for a little bit, but we’re back, working our way to making things better across the different coasts, the different districts, to ensure that we build the family of netball up again.”
On Saturday, the 2 Da Max Netball Academy played against the Windward Islands School Games team in the day’s only senior fixture. Both teams were missing some players, but 2 Da Max used their experience and strong defence to win 45-30.
LFX Ballers gained extra points because Shamrock forfeited their game.
In the junior division, Ruby Red Darlings and Little Sisters continued to stand out. Little Sisters beat Shamrock Juniors 47-11, and Desruisseaux’s Darlings won against White Blazers 17-13. As new talent is discovered, Paul says the national federation plans to launch a grassroots development programme soon.
“What we’ve found actually is that where we have energy right now is in the youth,” she said. “Persons my age and older have dissipated a little bit, so we’re really starting with the youth to ensure that in the next generation there’ll be netballers to follow.”
