BARBADOS has not beaten Trinidad & Tobago in senior netball for about six years, but that is what head coach Alwyn Babb is aiming to do at this year’s Americas Federation of Netball Association (AFNA) Championships in St Lucia.Babb and the rest of the Barbados team left the island yesterday for the biennial tournament which gets underway tomorrow with the opening ceremony and concludes next Tuesday.“We are going to the tournament to win. That is part of the whole focus as we prepare for the Commonwealth Games. If we are to seriously challenge the teams ahead of us, we need to be ahead of the rest of the Caribbean by some margin,” Babb said.“Yes, Trinidad is our biggest hurdle, but we are going to play one game at a time.”Trinidad has recently moved up one place to eighth in the world rankings, while Barbados has remained in 11th place. Babb said the ranking was not necessarily an indication that a team was better, since it also depended on the number of matches that were played during the year. An inactive team can lose its ranking.Barbados open their campaign against St Vincent & The Grenadines in the very first match tomorrow evening at the Beausejour Indoor Facility. The second match will be against the United States, with the big clash against Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday.Matches against St Lucia and Canada round out the schedule.“We are in good shape to win this tournament. What has come out of this training period is you can see the players communicating on court in terms of making decisions, dictating the pace and forcing the opponent to make errors,” he observed.The coach credits a higher level of fitness.“The fitter you are, the more you can control what is happening and not struggle to keep pace. You can look at the opponent’s game and start to make plays. It wasn’t easy to reach that stage, but we are getting there.”Babb said when he took over, there was more emphasis on individual play but over time, the team concept had taken over.“I had to be prompting them at every turn and now that is not the case.”Team: Lydia Bishop/36/Spooners Hill; Laurel Browne/34/Structural Systems Silver Raiders; Nikita Piggott/23/CO Williams Rangers; Nadia Blackman/30/Guardian General Pride of Villa; Sabreena Smith/26/Banks Spurs; Samantha Browne/21/Pine Hill St Barnabas; Kizzy Marville/26/Banks Spurs; Sabrina Browne/23/Pine Hill St Barnabas; Latonya Blackman/27/Guardian General Pride of Villa; Chekirah Shepherd/22/Cavalier Shotters; Lisa Puckerin/30/Structural Systems Silver Raiders; Tonisha Rock-Yaw/17/Brydens Anchor/Lester Vaughan; Head coach: Alwyn Babb; Assistant coaches: Marcia Oxley, Jackjie Forde-Brome; Physiotherapist: Alicia Brewster; Manager: Maureen Shepherd.
