Robinson shooting for the top
GETTING INTO the national team was not easy. Rebecca Robinson, who is seeking her first cap as a Sunshine Girl, reckons it will be just as difficult to retain a place.
“I just love netball. [It’s] a lot of hard work, a lot of determination, and being part of a national squad is not easy,” she admitted.
It is not the first time that she has had a brush with the national team, having trained for over a month with the Under16s while attending Immaculate Conception High School.
As her game progressed, through playing with Alpha, Liguanea United and now UWI Pelicans, Robinson found favour with the national selectors and made it to New Zealand with the Jamaica team last September. Again, she never played.
Her starring role in the goalshooter and goal attack positions for UWI Pelicans this season has once more thrust her to the forefront and she is now eyeing a game in the three-Test series against Barbados, which will start this evening with a 7 p.m. encounter at the National Arena.
“I think we will do well. It’s a new team, but we’re working to get there. I must say we’re putting in the work and we will give them a fight,” was Robinson’s modest, but honest assessment of the impending contest against world number 12 Barbados.
That is eight ranking spots lower than the Sunshine Girls, an unfamiliar title and adaptation for the 22-year-old.
NEW EXPERIENCE
“It’s a new experience – a lot of hard work. It pushes you and there’s a lot of time management as well because you’re not only playing for the national team, you have national responsibilities,” noted Robinson, a funloving young woman with an affinity for blue.
“I love the colour sky blue. I love fruits. I’m a fruity girl. I love to smile; I love to laugh,” she admits, with a broad smile.
“I don’t like pink. I’m not a pink type of person. I like sky blue. I like how it fits me – complexion and all,” she reinforced.
As with colour, her area of study varies, but remains distinct.
“I’m a psychology major,” she said. “I wanted to pursue sports psychology, so I started out with psychology. It wasn’t my first choice; I wanted to do physiotherapy at first. You know when you love something? So after I’m done with psychology, I’m going to go back to do physiotherapy ... and then I’ll continue doing sports psychology after.”
In-between all that is netball, and Robinson is looking to shoot her way to the top.
“I want to go all the way. I’d like a contract to go abroad, like England, anywhere it takes me, I’m willing to go all the way, so I’m just working towards that,” she said.
“You have a lot of talent here and you have to always try to make yourself seen. So it’s not an easy run. It’s a lot of perseverance, a lot of determination, and you’ve to work really, really hard to stay in,” added Robinson.