Annette Daley’s role as one of the coaches with Netball Jamaica’s development programme is to ensure that her young charges are ready and raring to go when the opportunity to make the senior Sunshine Girls team to a major championship presents itself.

While the upcoming Americas Netball (AN) World Cup Qualifiers, to be hosted on Jamaican soil, don’t count as one such championship with medal prospects, for Daley it represents a window through which the girls who fall under her programme can gain valuable experience.

The qualifiers, scheduled for October 15-22 at the National Indoor Sports Centre, will see eight countries battling for two spots to next year’s Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.

Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, Cayman Islands, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the USA are the teams hunting the available spaces.

Though already qualified for the World Cup, the number-three ranked Sunshine Girls will be the tournament’s ninth team, as they seek to add ranking points.

With some members of the historic silver medal-winning team from the recent Commonwealth Games expected to be rested, Daley welcomes the chance to throw some of her aspiring stars into action with the proverbial big girls.

“The Netball World Cup Qualifiers is really significant to the growth and development of netball, not just in Jamaica, but also in the region, and so it means a lot to me that the ladies from the development programme will be involved,” Daley told the Jamaica Observer.

“These ladies played against their age group in Guadeloupe recently and now they will be playing against more senior and experienced ladies, and this will surely benefit them,” she added.

Aside from the physical benefits that will come from their time on court, Daley believes the qualifiers also provide the opportunity for the aspiring players to grasp as much knowledge from their senior counterparts, many of whom might be in their final cycle, which will culminate at the World Cup.

It is with that in mind that she is hoping that the development players will capitalise on the opening, especially given the fact that they represent the next line of Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls’ legacy.

“The programme in Jamaica now is geared towards expanding the squad because we need to ensure that, when we are selecting teams, we have the best team representing Jamaica at all times, and for that to happen we need depth,” Daley noted.

“So it means we need to expose the girls to more competitive netball. So once we are exposing a wider group to competitive netball, you’re going to find that the best [players] will emerge, so it’s really important,” she said.

Much like Americas Netball President Marva Bernard, Daley alluded to the significance of improving the sport across the board in the region as this will only ensure that the top-ranked Jamaicans continue to lift their game against their lower-ranked regional counterparts.

Bernard, who is in the final year of her four-year tenure as president, told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview that her administration was doing everything in its power to leave the sport in good stead.

“We are doing everything to improve the performances [of teams across the region]. We have had several coaching courses and one is due to start next week. Hopefully coaches from Jamaica can be exported to the region, as several countries are ranked below 20 and they can be ranked higher with improved coaching systems and structures,” Bernard said.

Daley concurred.

“Having the other teams come here as well is developing Netball in the region and, in order for us to have competitive netball within the region, we also need to assist the coaches and players in the region for them to get better,” said Daley.

“Once netball in the region improves, it automatically means that Jamaica netball will also improve because playing against regional teams that are getting better will push us to lift our game. So it’s good for us to be a part of this competition,” she said.

Jamaica’s games will only count towards ranking points and, as such, will not be factored on the final results of qualification.