The Cayman Islands Netball Association is looking forward to its most successful year yet, and new initiatives are already in motion, according to newly appointed president Faith Crooks.
Among the plans is the hiring of new coaches for each district, bringing more men into the sport – beginning in school – and the inclusion of Cayman Brac players.
Though the association has integrated men in their preseason mixed tournaments, there is no official competition exclusive to men, but that will change within the next few months, she said.
“We will be sitting down as an executive committee to discuss how to bring in a men’s league,” Crooks told the Compass. “We have one person who we have identified to assist Mrs. Lyneth Monteith, who is the technical chair, to help with setting up the men’s league going forward.”
Crooks confirmed that several men have already started training with women’s clubs to familiarise themselves with the game.
Though men’s netball does not attract as much attention as the women’s, they are still prominent in many countries, many of which have national men’s teams, including Australia, Canada, England, Jamaica, Singapore and the US.
Crooks said that they are looking to grow their youth programmes in addition to having a greater presence within the schools.
“Right now we have four coaches that are serving districts across the island,” Crooks said. “We are working on recruiting coaches, upskilling our coaches, and we are working on getting more umpires, benchers and scorers, and once we have certain things in place it will be easier for us to host a lot of competitions.”
Once those events are in place, the Sister Islands’ netball programme will be prioritised for their participation in domestic and international tournaments.
“To have Cayman Brac come over, which they have expressed [an interest in doing] … we can build our national teams with the Brac and Grand Cayman.”
