Octavia Gibson is moving on – with no ill will to boot.
Netball’s recently ousted president says she has accepted the wish of the electorate and has no cares for being a nuisance to the new Juanita Cordle administration following this month’s narrow defeat at the polls.
In her first interview since losing a bid for a third term in office, Gibson admitted to being surprised at the election result. But she figures it best to keep out of the limelight so the new board can garner support from the general body.“There is a new board and they have my support. I wish them well [but] I wouldn’t have any involvement at the local level,” said Gibson, who also serves as the secretary of the Americas Federation of Netball Associations.
“You need to give the board time to do what they have to do, [so] I don’t think that I should be hovering in the background.
“If there are any questions they wish to ask I am preparing some documents to give each of the board members so they have something going forward, but it’s up to them to determine whether or not they want to use them,” she added.Despite the successes of the three national teams this year, Gibson narrowly lost the presidency by three votes to then vice-president Juanita Cordle at the highly anticipated December 18 general meeting.
This came just two months after the senior squad left Delhi with a best ever seventh-place finish at the Commonwealth Games, having garnered respect among the top tier nations for a once fading programme.
“I’m a little surprised [at the outcome] but I guess you should not be surprised at these things,” reasoned Gibson.
“How I look at it is I had four years and I think the board achieved a lot during my tenure and I guess other persons might want to come in at a point in time when the association is doing well, not financially, but otherwise. “I wasn’t in there to live [so] maybe it is a good time for change.”
But it’s evident that not everyone shares those feelings as netball is already feeling the fallout of Gibson’s departure. Although running unopposed, former long-serving treasurer Daisy Browne and one-time secretary Alicia Jemmott withdrew their nominations on Cordle’s elevation, leaving both posts vacant.
And this preceded the resignation of senior head coach Alwyn Babb, who also left his post just moments after Cordle’s victory, revealing that the newly-elected president never supported his appointment.
“I wasn’t surprised when I heard it at the meeting,” said Gibson of Babb’s resignation.“I think everyone was looking forward to how we would do at World’s (World Netball Championships) under his leadership, but I am hoping that we will still do well provided that we can get the funding to take the team to Singapore.
“I know Mr Babb is hurting too because he had established a rapport with the senior team as well as management,” she added. Even though she didn’t get a third term as desired, Gibson believes that her board was able to achieve a level of success, having restored respectability to the national programmes while revamping the domestic rules to mirror those at the international level.
“I think the good outweighed some of the challenges,” she remarked when asked to assess her tenure.“And when the challenges came I didn’t just bury my head in the sand, I got together with the board and found a way to deal with things.”“There were times when you read the newspaper and there were some positives about netball and you felt good. Then when you saw the articles that were not so positive I said, ‘Well, at least netball is still in the news.’” ?
