Plans for AFNA Champion of Champions in full gear
MARVA BERNARD, chair of the local organising committee of the inaugural staging of the Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) 2018 Champion of Champions High Schools Netball Tournament, says all systems are being put in place ahead of this year’s staging of the championships.
The competition, which will see 12 high school teams from across the region participating, will be held from July 15-21.
The countries that will be represented at this year’s championships are Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Jamaica will be represented by Excelsior High School and Holmwood Technical.
Bernard told The Gleaner that she is looking forward to a very competitive tournament.
She also said that her committee is working to ensure that the competition gets off to a smooth start.
“I am very excited about it because it is first time something like this is happening this side of the world,” said Bernard, who is a former president of Netball Jamaica.
“For all I know, it is first time in the AFNA region that something like this is taking place, and this is about development of a whole lot of young people, including statisticians, umpires and players, and so, all of this speaks to development,” she said.
“I am expecting an exciting competition, and one of the things that also makes me excited is that there will be no admission fee for any of the matches, and the final is going to be inside the National Indoor Sports Centre,” Bernard said.
Holmwood have been drawn in Pool B alongside Dominica State College (Dominica), Central Leeward (St Vincent and Grenadines), Christchurch Foundation (Barbados), Scarborough Secondary (Trinidad & Tobago) and Micoud Secondary (St. Lucia). On the other hand, Excelsior will compete in Pool B with Toco Secondary (Trinidad and Tobago), Springer Memorial (Barbados), Soufriere Secondary (St Lucia), Anglican High (Grenada) and North East Comprehensive (Dominica).
The competition will be in a round-robin format within the pools, with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the semi-finals of the competition.