Photo: Sunshine Girls – Shanice Beckford and Khadijah Williams pose on the newly refurbished Lela Robinson Courts at Independence Park in August this year.
The Sunshine Girls have no where to train and prepare for the up-coming three test series against England next January at the National Indoor Sports Centre (NISC).
It was a distressed head coach of the Sunshine Girls, Minneth Reynolds, who said that because of this situation, the team’s preparation is not going well at this time. The team went to training this morning at 5:30 and could not because it rained at the venue and left water puddles on the court and prevented training as on other days recently.
According to Reynolds “training for the Sunshine Girls is not going as well as expected because up to this time we don’t have a training ground. We have been bouncing form court to court – bouncing from one hard surface to another which is not good for the girls. We just have to wait and see if somebody will say ok then u can use our grounds today. As our national team we should not be struggling.”
Coach Reynolds went to say that they have trained at St. Andrew High School, JPS Sports Club and Scotia Bank Sports Club, and that there is no certainty where they will train from day to day.
She further stated that the team cannot train at the Leila Robinson Courts which were closed for repairs due to the ‘shocking’ of the people who use the courts there. The team is not able to use the NISC because Netball Jamaica has an outstanding bill which they cannot afford to pay at this time and will not be given access until the bill is paid
Reynolds said that using the NISC for the series in January will not present a home advantage for the Sunshine Girls as they are not able to use it and be acclimatized to it for an extended period. She fears that England will come here far better prepared for the series than Jamaica.
The coach said that the series is going to present a real challenge for the Sunshine Girls based on the problems with training facilities. She is however hopeful that someone will come forward and sponsor the team to be able to train inside the NISC.
Reyholds spoke at a Gold Rush Down Under function on Wednesday night at the NCB Sports Club that was held to raised funds for the 2015 World Netball Championships.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login