RURAL DELIGHT

IT WAS one-way traffic at the Manchester High School netball courts yesterday as rural area champions Holmwood Technical and Glenmuir High overpowered urban area winners St Hugh’s High and St Catherine High to win their first all-island junior and senior netball titles, respectively, as the ISSA schoolgirls’ competition came to a close.

In junior action, Holmwood stopped St Hugh’s 41-19 while it was a 41-25 victory for Glenmuir over St Catherine in the seniors final.

The seniors’ final was expected to be a close affair following narrow wins by St Catherine and Glenmuir close wins at the National Indoor Sports Centre a week ago to win the urban and rural titles.

Rural champions Glenmuir took control early as they rushed into a 10-5 lead after the first quarter. With captain and wing attack Briana Nevers and centre Danika Edwards spreading accurate passes to goal attack Nickeisha Powell and goal shooter Shanai Martin, they added 14 more goals to their opponents’ five as they went into a 24-10 lead at the halftime break .

After the break, it was all Glenmuir. Their defensive unit led by wing defence Makeisha Lindsay, goalkeeper Fentonian Henry and goal defence Tamaria Williams broke up several attacks by their opponents. They led 36-16 at the end of the third quarter and they rested most of their starters during the final quarter.

Martin, with 29 goals from 36 attempts, led the way for Glenmuir, with Powell assisting with eight from 11. For St Catherine, goal shooter Kellian Hunter top-scored with 22 from 24 while goal attack Kayla Wright had three from five.

Glenmuir’s coach Rayon Reid was an extremely happy man after his first all-island title.

“The feeling is awesome. We have won our first all-island title at our first attempt. I am not surprised with the big win as the girls put in a lot of work during the past week and it paid off in the end,” he stated.

“Today the girls came out very flat and after Glenmuir went on top so early, they gave up. But they did their best and I am happy all players ended injury-free,” St Catherine’s coach Phyllis Thompson said.

In the junior final, St Hugh’s jumped into a 9-8 first quarter lead but Holmwood, led by the brilliant, Jada Ricketts at goal attack, then took control to lead 18-11 at halftime.

With Ricketts combining well with goal shooter Rashada Brown, the Carline Graham-Powell-coached Holmwood jumped to a 31-12 third quarter lead and went on to win by a 22-goal margin.

Graham-Powell, who has won 10 all-island success at the senior level, was happy after her first win at the junior level.“Thank God for our first all-island junior success. After seeing St Hugh’s last week, I was confident that we would have won but I am disappointed that the girls did not get enough competition as it was too easy. The girls, especially Jada who is my go-to player, were brilliant. I expect her to be in the national programme very soon as she is an awesome player,” Graham-Powell said.

Losing coach Nardia Hanson stated that her team gave up too early. “We had two good quarters but going into the third quarter, the team just gave up .They are very young and most of them will be back next year and the experience was good for them,” said Hanson.

ISSA chairperson for netball, Erica Ewbanks, the principal of Garvey Maceo High School, said she was pleased with the number of schools which entered the competition.

“I am very pleased that we had a very successful staging of the competition. It was a full turnout this season (after the COVID-19 pandemic) and what pleased me most was that a lot of new schools entered for the first time and this shows that a lot of principals are showing interest in the sport and this is good for the future,” she stated.