​Je­didi­ah Ce­les­tine of De­fence Force emerged as the stand­out play­er, cap­tur­ing the pres­ti­gious over­all Most Valu­able Play­er (MVP) award as the 2025 Re­pub­lic Bank Laven­tille Net­ball League con­clud­ed its suc­cess­ful sea­son on Sat­ur­day. The clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny was held at Re­pub­lic Bank Head of­fice, sec­ond Floor, Con­fer­ence Room on Park Street in Port-of-Spain

​The tour­na­ment, hailed for its dis­play of ex­cep­tion­al tal­ent, team­work, and ded­i­ca­tion, cel­e­brat­ed the tri­umphs of young ath­letes from across the re­gion.

​De­fence Force was a dom­i­nant force, se­cur­ing first place in both the Pre­mier­ship (Mixed) and Men’s Di­vi­sions. The league’s top play­er, the speedy Ce­les­tine, was al­so specif­i­cal­ly rec­og­nized as an MVP in the men’s di­vi­sion.

​Jus­tice of the Peace Di­anne Pas­call, a pub­lic ser­vant in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, the fea­ture speak­er, praised the league as a “tes­ti­mo­ny to the pow­er of sport to unite, in­spire, and em­pow­er.” The Com­mi­sion­er of Af­fi­davits, who is al­so a net­ball coach and um­pire, com­mend­ed the play­ers for their pas­sion, ded­i­ca­tion, and sports­man­ship, not­ing the sea­son saw an “in­cred­i­ble dis­play of skills... a lit­tle more than last year.” She al­so thanked the coach­es for their “guid­ance, ex­per­tise, and tire­less ef­forts” in shap­ing the play­ers’ suc­cess.

​The sea­son cul­mi­nat­ed with sev­er­al teams se­cur­ing cham­pi­onship ti­tles across var­i­ous di­vi­sions in­clud­ing Car­di­nals in the ​A2 and ​B’s cat­e­gories, ​Mar­aval Youths in the ​In­ters, Va­len­cia Ea­gles in the ​Be­gin­ners and Phoenix Phury in the ​Ki­wis.

​Deb­bie-Anne Fran­cois, pres­i­dent of Net­ball T&T (NTT), for­mal­ly the T&T Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion, re­in­forced the mes­sage of com­mu­ni­ty. She em­pha­sized that net­ball helps play­ers learn cru­cial life skills like team­work, which aids them in nav­i­gat­ing dif­fer­ences out­side of sport. She en­cour­aged play­ers to “con­tin­ue to grow” and thanked Re­pub­lic Bank for their con­tin­ued spon­sor­ship, which helps the league “make your vi­sion come true.”

​Sher­win Forte, as­sis­tant man­ag­er at Re­pub­lic Bank Lim­it­ed, al­so cel­e­brat­ed the “tal­ent, team­work, and tri­umph.”

He un­der­scored the bank’s long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to the league, high­light­ing their sup­port for the past 38 years through their “Pow­er to Make a Dif­fer­ence” pro­gramme. Forte cel­e­brat­ed the ath­letes, say­ing, “When we see young women and young men step on­to the court with de­ter­mi­na­tion and con­fi­dence, we see the very essence of our pow­er to suc­ceed pil­lar brought to life.”

Ho­n­our roll

League MVP: Je­didi­ah Ce­les­tine (De­fence Force)

Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion (Mixed)

MVPs: Ne­hemi­ah Au­gus­tus (MIC), Kens­ley Sandy (De­fence Force), Shaquille Lewis (Po­lice)

League: 1 De­fence Force, 2 MIC

Top shoot­ers: Ker­ry McMil­lan (De­fence Force) 83/104, 2 Dex­ter Man­swell (Po­lice) 79/83, Kali­fa Mc­Collin (De­fence Force) 54/66

Men's Di­vi­sion

MVPs: Daniel Ha­gley (MIC), Je­didi­ah Ce­les­tine (De­fence Force), Em­manuel Rus­sel (Po­lice)

League: 1 De­fence Force, 2 MIC

Top Shoot­ers: Ker­ry McMil­lan (De­fence Force) 128/165, 2 Steve Mc­Sween (MIC) 56/63, Don Wilkin­son (Po­lice) 34/37

A2 Di­vi­sion

MVPs: Shur­nel De Ver­teuil-Joseph (Car­di­nals), Mer­laina Lakharam (Hori­zon), Ale­na brooks (Mlvern), Jamee­lah Mc­Far­lene (Buss It Ballers), Cier­ra Fran­cis (PNYC), Al­li­son Young (Hill Girls)

League: 1 Car­di­nals, 2 Malvern, 3 Hori­zon

Top Shoot­ers: 1 Saman­tha Greene (Buss It) 88/105, 2 Joelle Best (Hill Girls) 84/114, 3 Aaliyah An­drews (Car­di­nals) 83/121

In­ters Di­vi­sion

MVPs: Jordelle Red­head (Car­di­nals), Er­rycia Duprey (Mar­aval), Na­resse Arthur (Phoenix Phury), Yen­til Fi­garo-Chan­dler (Cen­tral Bank), Sari­ah Coltes (Tran­scend), Karis­sa Spencer (Bon Air)

League: 1 Mar­aval Youths, 2 Phoenix Phury, 3 Car­di­nals

Top Shoot­ers: 1 Nikyah Samuel (Mar­aval) 99/129, 2 Gel­lana Grant (Mar­aval) 50/79, 3 Mak­i­ba WIlliams (P Phury) 49/68

B Di­vi­sion

MVPs: Afiya Hunte (Mar­aval), Ameri Ma­habir (Car­di­nals), Nick­e­lia Gomez (Hori­zon), Tan­isha Dan (PNYC), Mya Charles (Uni­ty), Na­tal­ie Isaac (Jabloteh), Amaya Thomas (Buss It Ballers), Daniel­la Hold­er (En­ter­prise Ball­star), Mayshell Thomas (Hill Girls), Tan­isha Reid (Beetham PYC)

League: 1 Car­di­nals, 2 Mar­aval Youths, 3 Buss It Ballers

Top Shoot­ers: Karis­sa Sylvester (Mar­aval) 71/86, 2 Ameri Ma­habir (Car­di­nals) 60/74, 3 Bri­an­na Morang (Car­di­nals) 50/71

Be­gin­ners Di­vi­sion

MVPs: Keiann Sam­mer­son (Wharf Trace), Sherquan­na Cu­pid IMar­aval), Latisha Scott (Tran­scend), Mikela George (Orop­une), Kate­lyn Ifill (Ari­ma Unit­ed), Lor­raine Rocke (Bon Air), Zari­ah Chan­cel­lor (En­ter­prise), Melis­sa George (Va­len­cia Ea­gles), Lis­sa Tamaya How­ell (East­ern Quar­ry), Ter­ilya Lara (To­co PYC)

League: 1 Va­len­cia Ea­gles, 2 Ari­ma Unit­ed, Poco PYC

Top shoot­ers: 1 Kassy Lam­orelle (Va­len­cia) 37/62, 2 Cas­sidy Williams (Ari­ma) 26/45, 3 Ter­ilya Lara (To­co) 24/36

Ki­wi Di­vi­sion

MVPs: Jew­el Berke­ly (Uni­ty), Zeno­bia Es­nard (Malvern), Kezia Chava­lier (P Phury), Aaliyah Web­ster (Mor­vant), Sarai James (Buss It), Lete­sha Wil­son (Jabloteh)

League: 1 Phoenix Phury, 2 Mor­vant An­gli­can, 3 Buss It Ballers

Top Shoot­ers: 1 Kezia Chava­lier (P Phury) 35/55, Cam­ryn Hospedales (P Phury) 28/45, 3 Nao­mi Mar­chall (Mor­vant) 25/37