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DESPITE HER team’s three-match sweep over South Africa in the Margaret Beckford Sunshine Series, Sunshine Girls head coach Sasher-Gaye Henry says there is still a lot of work to be done as they look towards the next step in a four-year cycle.
Jamaica’s netball team won all three of their games against South Africa in comfortable fashion, completing 55-47, 59-47, and 58-47 victories across the span of a week.
The victory was Jamaica’s second consecutive series win following their come-from-behind 2-1 victory over England in the Vitality Netball Horizon Series in November last year.
Henry stated the recent positive results have left the team excited for the future but she is aware there is still work to be done to improve on the squad.
“We are excited, but it means that now, we have to look back on our programme and look at the needs of each player and the programme,” Henry stated.
“Going forward, we know it is going to be a lot of work that we need to put in place, but we are quite confident that we can get the job done and ensure that we can create the platform for different avenues for the girls to do well.”
Henry said the results were even more impressive, considering the national team had been out of action since the 2023 Netball World Cup.
Depth and versatility
She applauded her players’ quality in being able to take on two of the sport’s global powerhouses – England were relegated to fourth by the Sunshine Girls, while South Africa are ranked fifth in the world.
“It shows the depth and the versatility of our team. I think we have to commend ourselves because we haven’t played since the last World Cup, and then coming to play against teams who have a lot of match practice.”
She added, “It is interesting that we have done such a great job and it shows that our programme is working.”
Henry said the next step will be to build on the progress the programme has seen over the past few months.
With the players returning to their various clubs, she said the onus was now on the coaching staff and Netball Jamaica (NJ) to play their role in ensuring the team sees further development.
“I think we have started out on the right footing in our four-year journey. We are just hoping for greater things as we go along,” the Sunshine Girls boss stated.
She said one of the main avenues is to secure regular games against elite competition to keep the players in the national programme active.
Henry thanked the efforts of NJ in securing the four-year deal with England with the Horizon Series and is hopeful more games can be scheduled throughout the year.
“We have to thank Netball Jamaica for what they have done for us because if we don’t get to play teams of this standard, then there is no way we can grow. So more of these competitions is something that we have to take in order to improve on our rankings,” she explained.
“It helps to showcase that we are just as good as anyone in the world and we can push to get to the number-one spot by getting a lot of these game practices and working on what we need to with our players.”
English (US) ·