Netball continues to trail behind other sports, partly due to a lack of resources. However, the junior team’s win in Barbados, the selection of a senior team and Emanie’s return bodes well for the future of the sport.
In Guyana, netball is played competitively by women only and it remains one of several women’s sports that continue to take a backseat to men’s events. The local teams participated in two tournaments in the region: the Caribbean Netball Association (CNA) Under-16 Championships in Barbados in April and the senior team’s participation at an invitational tournament in Barbados in September.
The junior team’s performance showed some improvement from 2009 when they lost all their matches. Last year they won their first match against Bermuda by a slim margin of one point, 29-28.
They also struggled to a draw against St Kitts, (29-29). The team was also given a special award for the discipline it displayed both on and off the court.
On the other hand, the seniors lost all their matches at the tournament. Some improvement was seen in their game as the matches progressed but their opponents always proved stronger. The CNA also held its AGM parallel to the tournament and president of the Guyana Netball Association (GNA) Maxine Parris-Aaron was elected as first vice-president.
The GNA bore the full weight of the expenses incurred for both tournaments as, like other sports; it received no government support during the year. It had also gotten minimal sponsorship and had hosted fundraising activities to meet its expenses.
Even after the junior team had gone to Barbados the association was still soliciting funds from corporate Guyana to offset occurring expenses while the senior team had to pay its own airfare to and from Barbados.
Locally, the GNA named a national senior team. Guyana has not had a senior team since the dissolution of the last national team in 2006. It also held three tournaments: a junior under-16 tournament in April, a senior tournament in September and an inaugural under-23 tournament held in July. Except for the junior tournament, the others were contested by teams from the country’s five active netball clubs. The introduction of the under-23 tournament was seen as a bold move towards advancing the sport; it not only added another competition to netball’s already sporadic calendar of events but provided a transitional stratum from the junior to senior categories.
On another positive note 2010 heralded the return of the aggressive Emanie Netball Club to competitions after its two-year suspension from GNA tournaments. The team participated in the under-23 and seniors tournaments, and quickly displayed its winning talents.
Several plans propounded by the GNA including hosting netball clinics over the weekend for primary and secondary students, never came to fruition in 2010. This plan had been drafted as an alternative to having the sport installed in schools, due to high costs.
Also, several seminars for coaches and table officials planned for the year were not held as the resources simply were not available. However, the association did manage to organise a coaches and umpires committee which is expected to inform officials about officiating the sport and to recruit new officials.
