Young netballers step up work for England series

Robert Bailey, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Jamaica's junior Sunshine Girls have stepped up their preparations ahead of their four-match series against arch-rivals England, which begins on August 19 at the University of Technology (UTech).

The second match in the series will be played on August 20, third match on August 23, followed by the final game the next day. The last three matches will be played at the G.C. Foster College in St Catherine.

Both teams will be fielding their respective Under-19 teams for the series, which will most likely be the same set of players, who will participate at the World Youth Under-21 Championships, which will be hosted by Glasgow, Scotland, in 2013.

Expecting an exciting series

C. Lloyd Walker, coach of the young Sunshine Girls, who captured the bronze medal at the last tournament held in the Cook Islands in 2009, told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday, that he is expecting a very exciting series.

"We have some girls with good potential and with the right attitude, we should be able to make it a very competitive series," said Walker.

"We also intend to go into these games positively and hope that the girls will give a good account of themselves against the English," he said. Walker added that they are still working to improve certain areas of their game as it gets closer to the series.

"We have been trying to get the players to do some technical and tactical court work," Walker said. He also noted that they have selected 17 players for the series, but the team will be cut to 12 players on match day.

"The players that have been selected are among the best in the island at their age," he said. "However, we still have some work to do as it relates to match readiness for this series," Walker noted.

Deneen Taylor and Vangelee Williams, who represent Windalco in the Berger Paints Super League, along with Khadijah Williams, who plays for Waulgrovians A, are amongst some of Jamaica's most outstanding junior players that have been drafted in for the series by Walker.

They are joined by Chrishena Copeland, Antoinette Stone, Shade Ffrench and Vanessa Jones, who have all represented Jamaica at the Under-16 level.

The English team is scheduled to arrive in the island on August 15.