Senior coach responsible for netball at the National Sports Council, Tracey Leacock, has hailed this year’s Pedialyte Sport Primary Schools Competition as a resounding success, crediting meticulous planning, favourable weather and the smooth staging of every phase of the tournament.
Speaking after Wednesday’s final, in which Shirley Chisholm Primary secured a fifth consecutive title with victory over West Terrace Primary, Leacock said the competition had run almost flawlessly from the zonal stage to the championship match.
“The execution was almost seamless this year. We had the competition in the zones which ran really well and even the weather cooperated this year.
National Sports Council Senior coach, Tracy Leacock. (Photo Credit: KH/TL)
“We went on to our playoffs, which were held in Gall Hill St John and that too went off effortlessly and culminated in a successful final,” Leacock explained.
The veteran coach was also happy with the standard of play during the competition, which she attributed to a number of factors.
“The final was tremendous and generally throughout the tournament we’ve seen high standards of netball. I believe this can be attributed to girls playing more netball, playing in the BNA league as well and just generally having a love for netball and playing more.
“So we were able to see a very high standard of netball, especially from the playoffs where teams had to literally fight tooth and nail to advance,” Leacock added.
With five consecutive titles to their name, Shirley Chisholm Primary have established themselves as the dominant force in the competition for the last decade.
While attributing much of their success to the hard work being put in behind the scenes, Leacock said several schools are actively seeking to replicate that model, in an effort to narrow the gap between themselves and the Vauxhall-based school.
“So over the years, we have recognised that the schools who have succeeded are the ones who are putting in the extra work,” Leacock stated.
“We know that West Terrace, even though they were the losing finalists, they are always hard workers.
“Schools like All Saints and Christ Church Girls who are always involved in anything, they too recognise the potential of hard work and they are putting in the work. So we are seeing across the board, persons are working hard so that they too can come to the finals,” Leacock added.
(KH)
The post Organisers happy with execution of NSC Netball Competition appeared first on Barbados Today.
