CHRISTIANA, Manchester — Mastering the art of discipline. That’s the secret to Holmwood Technical’s success in schoolgirl netball, their coach Carlene Graham-Powell has said.

The Christiana-based school secured their third successive hold, and 10th overall, on the ISSA rural area senior league title last Tuesday after beating Titchfield High in the final at the National Stadium.

They then followed up that triumph with a 43-37 victory over urban area champions Camperdown High in the all-island play-off on Friday at the Juici Patties Complex in Clarendon Park.

That victory yielded their ninth all-island trophy in the past 11 years, and immediately after that celebration Graham-Powell stressed that this record is by no means an overnight success.

“At Holmwood, we have mastered the art of discipline,” she said. “That simply means doing the things that need to be done, and doing them all the time in the best possible way.”

“Eventually,” she added, “this must lead to excellence, so we just have to give thanks to God for giving us the strength to work hard, and to all the stakeholders who have helped to make this possible.”

Perhaps Holmwood’s only disappointment this season is the failure of their junior team to make it past the semi-final stage, losing to now three-time defending champions Denbigh High.

Graham-Powell, who noted that the junior squad is essentially the feeder team for the seniors, explained the reason for this three-year trophy drought at the Under-16 level.

“It is simply because, unlike in Clarendon, we don’t play a lot of netball at the primary school level in Manchester.

“This means when the players come to us it takes a little time to get them up to scratch, so we don’t really have enough time to prepare them for the juniors. What we do is work with them and eventually condition them to compete at the senior level,” said Graham-Powell.