Netball Jamaica (NJ) launched and conducted the lottery to select the six teams that will form the Berger Elite League, which will start on March 21.

It will run through to the middle of May. The bulk of the matches will be played at the Leila Robinson Courts in Kingston with two sets of matches in Clarendon and Manchester. Matches will be played on Friday evenings starting at 6:00 pm, while the out-of-town matches will be played on Sundays. The launch took place at the Netball House in Kingston on Friday evening.

The six teams are Manchester Spurs, Kingston Hummingbirds, St James Sharps, Clarendon Gaters, St Catherine Racers and St Ann Orchids. The coaches for the teams are Karlene Graham, Sylvester Campbell, Jennifer ‘Shaggy’ Brown, C Lloyd Walker, Christopher Smart and Valerie Blake, respectively.

The assistant coaches were selected by lottery. They are Christopher Pierrea, Vance Golding, Phyllis Thompson, Donovan Leon, Natacia Nembhard and Sasha Blake.

The players for the six teams were also selected by means of a lottery. They include well-known national players as well as past national players. According to Netball Jamaica, they are among the best netballers in the island.

Some of the 72 selected players are Malysha Kelly, Vangelee Williams, Chantal Slater, Shameera Sterling, Sabrina Spence, Paula Thompson, Nadine Bryan, Nicole Aiken-Pinnock, Elaine Davis. Twelve players were selected for each of the six teams.

The teams’ gear was modelled as per the team colours. The colours for the teams are Manchester Spurs — grey and red; Kingston Humming Birds — pink and white; St James Sharpes — burgundy and yellow; Clarendon Gaters — red and blue; St Catherine Racers — blue and dark blue, and St Ann Orchids — purple and yellow. Newly designed team logos were also released.

Berger is the title sponsor for the league this year.

Marketing manager Trevor Lloyd, who spoke at the launch, said that his company was happy to continue its sponsorship of netball in Jamaica and especially the new league which, based on the reaction of those present, had the making of an exciting competition.

Marva Bernard, NJ president, said that this is indeed the start of a new day for netball as it moves closer to a semi-pro league in the near future. This year they were not able to attract the funding required to run that type of competition, but expects to do so once companies see the success of the newly launched league.

Dr Paula Daley-Morris, who spearheaded the steering committee that organised this year’s league, said that though the league is not a fully semi pro one, payments will be made to some persons, while the netballers on scholarships will be assisted with out-of-pocket expenses. This will be done in order to maintain their scholarship status.

Coach C Lloyd Walker said that training will begin next week for his team, Clarendon Gaters, to get them ready for competition as well as to get them to be comfortable playing with each other. He said that he expects his team to do well in the competition under the new format.

Tashane Williams of Manchester Spurs expressed excitement at the new format while saying that she was looking forward to working with a new set of players. She also said that she expected her team to do well.