A visiting Under-16 team from Wisbech in the UK played against the local girls as the Sports Council’s netball programme continued yesterday.
NSC netball programme looking to build a strong foundation
7/10/2012
Netball has made up part of the bread and butter of the local sporting landscape for quite some time and although it has not enjoyed its former glory in recent times, there is yet hope as many of the island’s youngsters seem to take a keen interest in it. This is evident from the response given to the National Sports Council’s Summer Camp netball programme which is being hosted at the Netball Stadium for a remaining five weeks.
To date, the programme has fielded 144 campers and that number continues to grow each day. Speaking to the Barbados Advocate yesterday, coach and Programme Supervisor Margaret Cutting stated that unlike previous years, there were only a few 16 year-olds who usually made up the majority of campers. She added that instead, the group was made up largely of First Formers and first-time secondary school students. “The majority of the good netball is coming from the Under-13 section and we are using the First Formers that just played in the secondary school competition as well as those now going into secondary school after leaving the National Sports Council Pine Hill Dairy Primary School Competition. They are the strongest group here.” Cutting said.
Explaining that the group consisted girls from the age of eight up to 16, Cutting said that the next five weeks would be used to get the younger players to focus on the basic skills as they need to have a strong foundation in order to become good players. “What we are trying to do here is to reinforce the basic skills that were taught before such as footwork, catching, passing, shooting and movement on to the ball because these are all important especially for the ones going into secondary school. When they go into their respective schools, this is what the coaches will be reinforcing so we are trying hard to work on these skills.” she said.
Over the next five weeks in order to test what the youngsters would be learning Cutting stated that there would be a number of touring teams coming in to play against each age group, as well as several inter-house competitions to constantly force the girls to challenge themselves and become more comfortable with competition. (MP)
