The Cayman Islands Netball Association kicked off the new year with a focus on expansion, inviting the public to hit the courts for a weekend of tryouts designed to broaden the local talent pool.
On 10 Jan. at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex Netball Courts, individuals aged 12 to 20 gathered to showcase their skills, with several becoming new netball recruits for the association’s under-16 and under-21 squads.
Faith Crooks, president of the association, articulated a clear vision for the future, emphasising that these tryouts are foundational to rebuilding a seamless pipeline of talent.
“The tryouts are designed to help with the rebuilding of the programme and to ensure that there’s a smooth flow of players from the grassroots age group, from 5-10 years old, into the U12, U14 and U16 all the way up to U21 and into the senior programme,” she said.
Challenges
Reflecting on the past season, Crooks acknowledged that there were “quite a number of positives” that she is “grateful to God for”, but she also acknowledged some of the challenges faced.
“We’ve had challenges in terms of facilities, where sometimes we’re not able to use the facility consistently. Consistent training leads to consistent results. Consistent results means that the Cayman Islands is poised to go internationally,” she said.
“We also have a problem with just being able to attract some of the kids out of the high schools to come into the higher programme,” she added.
Remaining optimistic about the future, she briefly shared a goal of the association and a possible soon-to-be-filled role that she believes will be helpful for the sports success this year.
“We want to go into the districts to carve out the Turtle Netters programme – which is grassroots focused – and that will be possible once we are able to hire our grassroots and high-performance coach, which we’re hopeful to fill that role by the end of March,” she said.
Long-term vision
Central to this long-term vision of Crooks is the inspiration drawn from Caribbean netball legends like the late Eugenia ‘Jean’ Pierre, a former Trinidad and Tobago star and world champion who also coached in the Cayman Islands.
“We’re looking forward to having someone, maybe not to say this is the next Jean Pierre, but someone to take the Cayman Islands netball program to a high level where we can one day see ourselves competing at the World Netball level and also for the future 2032 Olympics,” she said.
Although netball’s inclusion into the Olympic Games remains an ongoing discussion today, Crooks still has her sights set on the opportunity, recognising that many of the current and newly recruited players are the athletes “who would possibly be fit enough to be in that Olympic programme”.
