When her country called, 33-year-old netballer Ms Vangelee Williams, who retired from international competition five years ago, answered “Yes.”

She’s a patriot to the core, we think.

Now Ms Williams is in England with Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls, eager to once again don the black, green and gold in the two-match Vitality Series against the English starting 9:00 this morning (Jamaica time).

A candidly honest Ms Williams tells us that when she retired in 2020 she thought she was “finished”.

Said she: “Mentally, I tapped out… and I just didn’t want to continue anymore…”

But now that she is back, she feels like she is “better”, though she concedes her physical fitness is not yet where it needs to be.

With admirable enthusiasm, she declares that since resuming training she has looked forward to a return to national duties.

“It really feels good, and it has made me realise that I actually missed the sport at this level, and I am happy to contribute in any way I can,” the defender told our reporter before departure for England.

While she is apparently not setting long-term goals in terms of international netball, Ms Williams says she is “definitely aiming for another Commonwealth Games”.

The next such is in mid-2026 in Glasgow, Scotland.

We wish Ms Williams all that’s good as she pushes forward in service to her nation and in pursuit of her dreams.

From the team perspective, national Head Coach Mrs Sasher-Gaye Henry-Wright says the plea for Ms Williams to come out of retirement was motivated by current inexperience in the squad, which is without a number of senior players.

“We approached her and she was available, and we watched her [play]… She was good…” the head coach explained.

In ordinary times, the Vitality Series would have been a two-way affair, with two games played at National Indoor Sports Centre in Jamaica earlier this month.

However, Hurricane Melissa — Jamaica’s worst natural disaster in modern times — struck in late October, forcing organisers to cancel the Jamaica leg.

Now, with what the head coach describes as “the best team we can put together right now”, our Sunshine Girls won’t be favourites for this series in England.

But we can be sure they will be giving their all.

Ms Henry-Wright claims that her squad is under “no pressure facing England; we are talking about performances, we are talking about goals. We know what we have… We just have to work”.

And she reminds us of the resource constraints that haunt Jamaican sport — perhaps netball more than most other disciplines.

She makes the point that the approach to national netball urgently needs much more than the current seniors and Under-21 programmes.

She wants funding to support more coaches, and pathway development initiatives from which, ideally, well-rounded recruits can be drawn in the absence of first-choice players.

The reality of Hurricane Melissa means those difficulties/challenges are likely to only get worse for the foreseeable future.

Yet, Mrs Henry-Wright and others in the leadership of sport must remain undeterred by current circumstances.

They need to keep speaking hard truths such as those relating to material support.

That’s one good way to ensure the attention of those who can make a difference in the provision of opportunities for the resourcing of sport.

Crucially, when those opportunities arise, they must be recognised for what they are and grabbed with all hands.