Sport

Nevers shoots for dynasty

By DARAINE LUTON, Freelance Writer

FOR SEVEN consecutive years, Jamalco has been making it to the finals of the Senior Netball League. Unfortunately though, in five of those years, they had been the proverbial bridesmaids, losing four times to Waulgrovians and once to Tivoli.

However, for coach Winston Nevers, who is now talking about building a dynasty, Saturday's nail-biting 40-38 win over arch-rivals Tivoli to retain the Berger Paints Netball Super League title -local netball most coveted trophy-, was simply the begining of a new era of dominance for his Clarendon team.

"They never beat us this year and they are not going to beat us next year either. We are going to be stronger next year," Nevers said.

Their victory in the finals was the third win over Tivoli in the Super League having triumphed earlier in the preliminary round and the mid-season final. However, although the closeness of the final was widely expected, Nevers said at no time was he fearful that his team could lose.

"I was not afraid of Tivoli. I never had Tivoli to win the tournament. I knew they would have played well and they could have won it but the team that I was scared of was Waulgrove (Waulgrovians)...When I checked Waulgrovians registration they registered all their players who played for them last year including Carla Willians. The only person who was not registered was Sharon Wiles".

Scared

"I was really scared that if they had come back and played it could have spelt trouble for us knowing that we were not playing so wonderful," Nevers added.

But although Waulgrovians registration had driven fear into Nevers, the netball strategist said he was always confident he had the necessary fire power to go all the way.

"I was so confident that we could retain," Nevers said.

According to the Jamalco coach, he always knew his side could roll over Tivoli because, as he puts it, he didn't see where the West Kingston based team had improved much, if any at all, since last year.

Attacking players

"Tivoli were playing at a level and I knew they could not lift their game to a higher height and once we got back our attacking players then I knew we could beat them," said Nevers.

The attacking players to which Nevers makes mention are shooters Elaine Davis and Margaret Byfield. Davis was sidelined at the end of the World Netball Championships after picking up a viral infection in her injured right knee. She later underwent an operation to remove three screws that were performing fixation job in her knee. Likewise, Byfield was kept out by a back injury.

However, Nevers said the 15-year old Romelda Atkins who was brought in to perform shooting duties carried the team in Davis's absence.

"I always said that if she (Romelda) could carry us into the quarter-finals before Elaine return then we could retain and once we got to that stage I knew Elaine was going to carry us through," he said.

Meanwhile, Byfield and Davis were not the only worries to have hit the Jamalco camp at the start of the season. Their ace defender Nadine Ffrench migrated to the United States of America to take up a scholarship.

Looking back at the season, Nevers said his greatest disappointment was not making it to the semi-finals of the league rally.

"I was really down. I stopped and said Jamalco don't reach semis for the first time in seven years. Oh God. That thing almost over come me. It really woke me up".

New members

Nevers said he went back to the drawing board and also included some new members in the side with a vision of retaining the Senior League. His work paid off as Jamalco, which also won the mid-season final, also ended the season as the only unbeaten team. The closest they came to losing was in the preliminary round when they were held to a 45-45 scoreline by Omega.

Jamalco also ended the Super League with the most goals, 757, outscoring nearest rivals Tivoli (695), Waulgrovians (660) and Jetsetters (553). Conversely, Jamalco conceded 511 goals, significantly more than Waulgrovians (460), Jetsetters (456) and Tivoli (453).