Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

National Coach Connie Francis

WITH A blend of youth and experience, Jamaica's Sunshine Girlz are beaming with confidence ahead of today's departure for the World Netball Championships (WNC), which begin in Auckland, New Zealand, next Saturday.The Connie Francis-coached team has been drawn in Group C and will play alongside Fiji, Singapore and the Cook Islands.

Providing Jamaica finish in the top two, they will advance to the quarter-finals, from where they will launch their bid for the medal round.

The Sunshine Girlz are ranked third in the world following their 2003 WNC bronze-medal performance. They have retained seven players from that team. They are Nadine Bryan, Sharon Wiles, Captain Elaine Davis, Simone Forbes Byfield, Nichala Gibson and Kasey Evering.

However, missing from the 2003 team will be experienced defenders Georgia Gordon and Oberon Pitterson, who have since gone into retirement. Sharp shooter Carla Williams who has, for reasons unexplained, decided not to return to the national set-up, and hard-working attacker Tiffanie Wolfe will also not make the trip.

Nadine Bryan (front, centre) aand teammates (clockwise from front left) Nichala Gibson, Vanessa Walker, Sasha-Gaye Henry and Simone Forbes look at a videotape of a previous game, at the National Indoor Sports Centre, recently - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

team not shining

Jamaica has dreamed of topping the world at this tournament but since finishing third on home soil in 2003, the team has not been shining.

The Girlz were beaten by England for bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.

They also suffered 2-0 away series defeats to host teams Australia and New Zealand earlier this year. Then they were beaten 3-0 by number four-ranked England in their last competitive series in September, at home.

Despite this, Coach Francis, who played her last WNC in 2003, is upbeat about Jamaica's chances.

"I am very confident that the girls will do well and I am also confident that we will come home with a medal for sure," said Francis.

"The girls have been working very hard on our tactical plays. We have also been improving on our strength and conditioning and our fitness, and so I expect good things at this championship," she said.

"What this team has is quite a few experienced players and certainly we have the depth. We have players who are very versatile and can play different positions on the court. So, I definitely know that we have the depth and capability to do well," Francis said.

Vice-captain Simone Forbes (left) prepares to pass the ball to Captain Elaine Davis (right), who is being guarded b Byfield, during a training session at the National Indoor Sports Centre, recently. Davis will bow out of international competition after this month's World Championships in New Zealand. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

The coach added that the team has been improving on the mistakes which it made against England in the recent series.

"We have taken most of the positives out of the England series and we have also looked at the negative things that happened to us. We have certainly erased the first game and the second game and third game could have gone either way," she said.

"What we also learnt in that series is the fact that we have to make sure that we take care of the ball. We have to be able to shoot well and contest well each possession. We have to also be very strong out there on the court and make sure that we are very aggressive and we have to also be able to rally around each other and believe in ourselves," she explained.

Francis added that the girls were very motivated - knowing that a lot of people are not expecting them to do well at the championships.

"We have seven players from the last World Championships and they believe in themselves and they are going out there to show the Jamaican public and their families that they can do well in this championship," said Francis.

praise for teenage goal shooter

Francis also had high praise for 16-year-old goal shooter Christina Solmon who was a surprise inclusion.

"I think Christina is a very talented player. Certainly she is still very young but she has shown a lot of maturity. She has shown that she loves the game and is committed to our programme.

"She has also gotten a lot of criticism but she still survived and continued to work hard on her game. However, we know that she is not a Simone Forbes but we know that she is capable of playing well and I am confident that whenever we use Christina, she will do well."

Francis continued: "One of the things is that we have asked players to commit themselves to our training programmes. Some did and others didn't and so Christina deserves to be in the squad."Solmon made her first senior team appearance with the Sunshine Girlz on their ill-fated tour Down Under. Solmon also joined Janet Johnson as the youngest player to represent the country at the tournament. Johnson first represented the country at the 1975 World Championships which, ironically, was also held in New Zealand.

Marva Bernard, president of the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA), said despite the many obstacles and challenges the team has faced during its preparation for the World Championships she is expecting the girls to give a good account of themselves.

"We are expecting to win a medal because the girls have been working extremely hard to achieve this," said Bernard, who took over the reins as JNA president from Sharon Donaldson in December 2005. Bernard also said that any one of the top four nations could win this year's event.

"This is what all the top four coaches are saying and I don't see any reason why I should give my team less of a chance of winning," she said.

captain confident

Meanwhile, Captain Davis, who has played more than 90 international games for Jamaica and will be making her fourth World Championship appearance, is also confident the team will do well.

"If we are consistent and build on the spurts and some of the brilliance that we had in the series against England, then we should be able to give a good account of ourselves at this World Championships," she said.

She also noted that one of the problems in the team was that it had lost a lot of experienced players and the ones coming in now had limited experience.

Davis, who has so far undergone five knee surgeries, said she will retire from the sport after the championships.

"This will also be my last championships, so I have prepared myself to go there and give 100 per cent for my country," she said. "I have been playing netball all my life. I have been playing at the club level and I have also played in a number of Caribbean tournaments and at the World Championships, so I think now is the right time to walk away," she said.

"I know that I have contributed a lot to the development of netball over the years in Jamaica," said Davis.

GROUPINGS

POOL A: New Zealand, Malawi, Botswana, Wales POOL B: Australia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Scotland POOL C: JAMAICA, Fiji, Singapore, Cook Islands POOL D: England, South Africa, Barbados, Malaysia

JA'S POOL GAMES

(New Zealand time) Sunday, November 11: vs Cook Islands Monday, November 12: vs Fiji Tuesday, November 13: vs Singapore