DENBIGH High and Excelsior High crowned themselves Junior and Senior League All-Island champions, respectively, at the 2017 Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) netball finals played at the Manchester High School on Wednesday.

The Rural champions Denbigh, coached by Christine Bartley, defeated Urban champions St Catherine High School coached by Phyllis Thompson 27-20 for the All-Island title. Gaynstead High were the defending champions.

Urban Senior League champions Excelsior High, coached by Christopher Smart, were claiming their first hold on the title by defeating many-time champions Holmwood Technical, coached by Carline Graham-Powell, 43-32 for the all-island supremacy in that category. Excelsior were beaten by Denbigh last year in their first attempt to win the champion of champions title.

Denbigh High’s Bartley said it was nice to have won the All-Island junior title after losing the senior leahgue title Rural title to Holmwood Technical.

“Denbigh will always produce good teams in both the Junior and Senior League competitions, and we are hoping to return to the top next season,” he said, despite the fact that a few of the players will move on at the endof the school year.

The winning coach of Excelsior High said all the members of the team are jubilant at winning the All-Island Championship title.

“It was hard work throughout the season for the players, in addition to finishing the competitions with an unbeaten record,” Smart said.

“The match was a big challenge for the players as any Holmwood team will always be very hard to beat as they are the most successful school in netball competitions.

“The players stuck to the task and they kept possession of the ball, as I told them not to play to their opponents’ style, but let them come to us. They became a little frustrated and we went on to win comfortably,” said Smart.

Smart said he will be losing the services of three players next season, but has a lot of reserves to select from for the Senior League. The teams will still be strong he promised.

Holmwood’s Carline Graham-Powell conceded that Excelsior were a more experienced team and she congratulated the players on their victory.

“Holmwood is a very young team and will be a much stronger next year as they will have the same crop of players in their line-up. We actually have the same team and we won’t be losing any of our present players as four of them are also juniors,” noted Graham-Powell.

Meanwhile, the Senior League feature match was closely contested in the first quarter with Holmwood just having a slight edge in play to take a 11-7 lead.

Excelsior High stepped up the pace in the second quarter and between shooters Hasana Williams and Rocoya Douglas, netted 14 goals to Holmwoood’s nine, to go into the half-time break with a 21-20 lead.

The Excelsior players once again dominated the third quarter scoring nine goals to Holmwood’s seven goals to increase their lead to 30-27.

Excelsior took complete charge of the fourth and final quarter and went further in the lead to register a convincing 43-32 victory.

Williams, who was voted the Most Valuable Player netted 31 goals from 39 attempts, and Douglas added 12 goals from 16 attempts.

In the All-Island Junior League championships the scorers for the winners were Rianna Wisdom with 13 goals from 22 attempts and Talia Hunter with 11 goals from 18 attempts, while for the losers, Tahlice Redwood scored 13 goals from 17 attempts and Chevelle-Lee Thompson added seven goals from eight attempts.

Goal-shooter Rianna Wisdom of Denbigh High was named the Most Valuable Player of the match.