Rachael Thomp­son-King

Six-foot­er Saman­tha Wal­lace re­joined the na­tion­al Un­der-16 net­ball team as the T&T unit head­ed over to Bar­ba­dos yes­ter­day for the Caribbean Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CNA) Jean Pierre Cham­pi­onships. The vice-cap­tain re­turned from the Cay­man Is­lands on Tues­day af­ter rep­re­sent­ing T&T in the girls U-17 high jump at the Carif­ta Games that took place over the East­er week­end. Wal­lace placed fifth with a best jump of 1.60 me­tres. She will now fo­cus on help­ing the ju­nior "Ca­lyp­so Girls" win its first ever ju­nior net­ball ti­tle.

"Saman­tha, as is the rest of the team, is in high spir­its," said man­ag­er Lynette Dun­can. "They all rest­ed af­ter our ar­rival be­fore their 5 pm train­ing." Wal­lace is one of six fa­mil­iar faces from last year's team. The oth­ers are cap­tain Khadi­jah Kingsale, shoot­ers Jenice Mc In­tosh and Kali­fa Mc­Collin and cen­tre-court play­er Cerise Bre­ton. Ten­nisha�Cud­joe, who was a stand­by play­er in last year's team, earned a place on the 12-mem­ber team. "Our chances are great this year. We have tall play­ers which we see as an ad­van­tage," said Dun­can. "Apart from that, we have six play­ers re­turn­ing bring­ing a wealth of ex­pe­ri­ence. Noth­ing will be new to them."

Coach Nao­mi Babb and her as­sis­tant Char­maine Archer re­turn for the third straight year as they look to get it right this time round. In 2008 when they first took over, T&T fin­ished sec­ond be­hind Ja­maica.

The fol­low­ing year, the ju­nior team fin­ished third be­hind host Ja­maica and Bar­ba­dos, re­spec­tive­ly. The 11th edi­tion of the ju­nior tour­na­ment will be played us­ing a two-tier sys­tem–the first time in the his­to­ry of the tour­na­ment. De­fend­ing cham­pi­on Ja­maica, as well as T&T, Bar­ba­dos, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, Do­mini­ca, St Kitts, Grena­da and St Lu­cia will play for the Jean Pierre ti­tle. New­com­ers Bermu­da, Cay­man Is­lands, Turks & Caicos and Guyana will play in a de­vel­op­men­tal league. Tonight the team will at­tend the tra­di­tion­al can­dle­light cer­e­mo­ny. To­mor­row, fol­low­ing the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny, T&T will play its first match against St Vin­cent and the Grenadines from 5.20 pm.

Team

Jenice Mc In­tosh, Jameela Mc Carthy, Kali­fa Mc Collin, Saman­tha Wal­lace, Ten­nisha Cud­joe, Cerise Bre­ton, Kin­nesha Gar­den­er, Ane­cia Bap­tiste, Khadi­jah Kingsale, Ree­ka Seert­tan, Mon­i­ca Pe­ters, Sami­ka Allysop.

Of­fi­cials

Nao­mi Babb (coach), Char­maine Archer (as­sis­tant coach), Lynette Dun­can (man­ag­er), Karielle De Bique (pri­ma­ry care-per­sons), Shurlan Bonas (train­er).