Na­tion­al ju­nior coach Vel­ma Hazel­wood has re­tained the ser­vices of tal­ent­ed Chi­na­ka Lind­say and Keny­cia Perez for the up­com­ing Caribbean Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion's (CNA) Jean Pierre Un­der-16 Cham­pi­onships to be host­ed by St Vin­cent and the Grenadines (SVG).

Hazel­wood on Sun­day set­tled on her fi­nal 12 play­ers and in­clud­ed the pair to bol­ster the ju­nior "Ca­lyp­so Girls" chances when they take on the lead­ing U-16 teams in the re­gion at the tour­na­ment set to pass off on March 27 and con­clude on April 4.

De­fend­er Lind­say, who is mak­ing her third straight ap­pear­ance on the youth team and cen­tre-court play­er Perez, were part of the lo­cal team who placed sec­ond in the round-robin com­pe­ti­tion be­hind Bar­ba­dos last year in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da.

An­oth­er two fa­mil­iar faces on the na­tion­al ju­nior team are Pre­cious Gra­ham and Mari­ah Ro­driguez, who were mem­bers of last year's train­ing squad and re­tained as stand­by play­ers. How­ev­er, Hazel­wood and the se­lec­tion com­mit­tee took no­tice of their ef­forts dur­ing the last two months of train­ing and were re­ward­ed with spots on the unit.

Hazel­wood and her as­sis­tant coach Ro­ma Nor­eiga are in the process of putting the fi­nal prepa­ra­tions to have team peak­ing when it faces off against tough op­po­nents in the mul­ti ti­tle-hold­ers Ja­maica, which missed the last edi­tion, Bar­ba­dos, St Lu­cia and of course host SVG.

"Go­ing for­ward, we are aim­ing to build the team's in­ten­si­ty and main­tain it," said Hazel­wood, who is fo­cused on get­ting suc­cess from their strate­gic plan. "Strength­en­ing and con­di­tion­ing are key in our prepa­ra­tion right now."

Hazel­wood and Nor­eiga along with man­ag­er Lynette Dun­can and train­er So­journ­er Hyles-Lewis will con­tin­ue to meet with the lo­cal net­ballers four days a week (Tues­day, Thurs­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day), pri­mar­i­ly at the Nel­son Man­dela Park in St Clair, Port-of-Spain, with hopes of bring­ing home the ju­nior ti­tle.

Team

Shoot­ers: Pre­cious Gra­ham, Mari­ah Ro­driguez, Alysa Con­nel­ly, Vic­to­ria Tay­lor

Cen­tre court: Ama­ra Edghill, Maria Har­radan, Kaylea Soungie, Keny­cia Perez

De­fences: Trea­sure Gar­cia, Chin­ka Lind­say, Jeni­ca Goodridge, Neke­sha Gomes

Re­serves: Jelis­sa Goodridge (shoot­er), Ay­na Gra­ham (cen­tre court), Nico­la Gill (de­fence)

Staff: Vel­ma Hazel­wood (coach), Ro­ma Nor­eiga (as­sis­tant coach), Lynette Dun­can (man­ag­er), So­journ­er Hyles-Lewis (train­er/pri­ma­ry care)