Carolyn Johnson, Freelance Writer

Captain of Jamaica's Under-16 netball team, Sasha-Gaye Lynch, shows off the Caribbean Netball Association Under-16 Championship Trophy. - file

President of the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA), Marva Bernard, believes 2006 was an excellent year for netball.

Much of her joy came from the Under-16 team who restored the crown at the Jean Pierre Regional Youth Championship in Trinidad and Tobago after losing for the first time in 2005.

The girls won in style as they thrashed all seven teams with the smallest margin of victory 20 and 25 against Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, respectively.

Along with being crowned champions, Jamaica was named the best defensive team, most accurate shooting team, best goal average, most valuable player and top goal shooter (Christina Salmon), and the youngest academic achiever award (Lionne McNaughton).

Missed out

The Sunshine Girlz, however, missed the third-place spot of the XVIII Commonwealth Games, held in Australia in March. The girls missed out on a medal placing when they lost 53-52 to England. New Zealand got gold while hosts Australia won the silver medal. Here, captain Elaine Davis announced that Oberon Pitterson had played her last match in a Jamaica uniform. Still, the team clobbered Trinidad and Tobago 63-32, 68-25 and 82-24, in a tri-test series in November.

Business House netball was again dominated by General Accident who won the Open and Super Leagues. First Caribbean International Bank (FCIB) were winners in the Junior League, NEM were the Intermediate 'B' champions, Wisynco were crowned Intermediate 'A' winners and National Commercial Bank the Senior League winners.

The JNA Leagues saw Jamalco taking the Open and Berger Super Leagues. Speg 'B' dominated Supreme Ventures Division 'C', while Torrington Park 'A' took the B Division sponsored by Western Union and Ravens 'A' the Supreme Ventures Division A.

New coach

In 2006, JNA launched their website and rededicated their office while Oberon Pitterson stepped down as head coach. Connie Francis was named to replace her as senior team coach with Annett Daley as her assistant.

In schoolgirl netball, the year belonged to the rural schools. Holmwood Technical and Denbigh High were all-island champions in the senior and junior leagues, respectively after dominating the rural segment, while Dunoon and Queen's were urban winners. Quest retained the JISA Inter-Prep Schoolgirls Netball competition title for the seventh time.

Another of Bernard's proud moments was a Digicel gift to the Jamaica Netball Association, a $5 million sponsorship package, half of which went to preparations for the World Netball Championships, to be held this November. The package which will span three years is aimed at the development of both the senior and Under-16 teams.

Internationally, netball became the centre of much attention in December when the World Netball Championship was moved from Fiji, after a military coup on the island. New Zealand won the bid and will host the the games in November.