MINERAL HEIGHTS, Clarendon — Netball in Clarendon returned to the Primary, Prep and Junior High School level for the first time in three years when the Clarendon Netball Association (CNA) teamed up with Samba Sports last Wednesday to relaunch the competition at the Mineral Heights Courts.

The primary, prep and junior high netball competition was pulled from the calendar in 2007, as the organisers struggled to find sponsorship for the eight-week-long championship.

But Winston Nevers, chief netball organiser in the parish, said they saw it fit to reintroduce the competition at this particular time because the need for a development league in the parish was great.

“This is a development league, so we just wanted the teams to come out and play so that they get to know what netball is all about… and to understand what it takes to be a good netballer from start,” said Nevers, who also coaches JAMALCO and WINDALCO in the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA)/Berger Paints Super League.

“I’m going to go into the schools and give everybody one day each week so that we can teach them some skills… that when they enter into the national junior programme they can adjust,” added Nevers, a vice-president of CNA.

But, for the league to come back on stream, it needed a sponsor and that was where Samba Sports — a relatively new sports goods store located in the heart of May Pen, stepped in.

Delroy Greene, the company’s director said it was a vision of his to get involved in sports at the primary school level.

“… I decided to get in because Mr Nevers asked me to be a part of netball, but down the line I want to help with other sports at the primary level… basketball and football, so I will just start off with netball and just take it from there,” he said.

“It was not that difficult (for me to get involved) because Mr Nevers, being an experienced person in that area, brought the idea to me and… I don’t even know about netball, but he has been doing this for a lot of years now… so I bought it,” added Greene, who taught physical education in the United States for 18 years.

An addition to this year’s competition, Nevers said, is the use of former captain of the national senior team Elaine Davis as a mentor/motivator to the young netballers.

Davis, who is now retired from international netball, but who still represents her longtime club JAMALCO in the JNA/Berger Paints Super League, was a major attraction among the kids at the opening ceremony on Wednesday, as they flocked to her for autographs.

Davis told the Observer that she was only too happy to be a part of such a programme.

“I started playing netball at age 12 while at Glenmuir and he (Nevers) introduced me to Maureen Hall (former national coach) because I was about six feet tall at the time.

“Most of these guys are at the same age… they might not be as tall, but you can see that they really want to play the game, so if I can be used to motivate them, good… because it’s good when they start from they are young…,” she said.

Some 12 to 14 primary and prep schools are expected to take part in this year’s competition, which will be divided into two groups, from where the top four teams will advance to the semi-finals after playing each other once.

The junior high competition should see about six schools challenging for the title in a round-robin format, with the team with the most points at the end of the competition being declared the champions.

At the opening ceremony, Race Course Primary and Cross Primary and Junior High won the respective one-day rally crowns after scoring identical 5-3 wins over Sanguinetti and Hayes Junior High, respectively.

The competition, which will run for eight weeks, will begin officially next Wednesday at the Mineral Heights Courts.