By Carlena Knight
President of the Antigua and Barbuda Netball Association (ABNA) Karen Joseph has outlined a number of ventures the association will take in order to address the updating of coaching and referee licences in the country.
Joseph highlighted that not only will the association host seminars for both fields, but that the Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) will also facilitate sessions.
“We had a seminar last year and we are due to have a coaching and umpiring seminar but apart from the seminar itself, the person that we spoke to from Jamaica, I want to not only coach the teams but have seminars with the coaches in our country because that is very lacking, in terms of school and the association…he has to spend time doing coaching courses with the coaches in our country.
“AFNA has also agreed to send us a coach where we have activities and also for umpires as well because we don’t have qualified umpires either. We were dormant for nearly 10 years so that is a necessity for us right now that we get these things on par. Some of the umpires in our leagues are not up to par with the rules.”
The country’s first Sportswoman of the Year believes this is the field that needs to be improved in order for the sport to grow locally and also for teams to compete on both the regional and international scale.
Presently Antigua and Barbuda is ranked 36th among the 42 countries in the world on the latest International Netball Federation (INF) list.