Following the recent announcement by Netball Jamaica (NJ) President Tricia Robinson that Sunshine Girls Head Coach Connie Francis will not be renewing her contract with the organisation, her assistant Shawn Murdock has expressed an interest in the job.

Robinson told the Jamaica Observer last week that Francis has indicated that she will not be carrying on with the team when her contract ends in the coming weeks.

Murdock, who has been Francis’ assistant for the past five months, played a vital role in helping the Sunshine Girls to secure a bronze medal at the just-concluded Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa. In fact, it was the Sunshine Girls first medal at the championships in 16 years.

“Once it is advertised, then I will put in an application, and so I will put my hand up for sure as an interested applicant,” said Murdock.

“If you are coaching and you want to coach the best team then you also want to be the head coach one day as well, so it is an opportunity that I would not back away from, but I need to think about it.

“It will be a good step in [my] coaching career and I guess because the higher you coach the more persons will see you, not just locally, but internationally as well. As you know there is not a lot of funding or resources for coaches locally, so if it gives you an opportunity for you to grow and become marketable internationally, then that of course is something that I will welcome as well,” Murdock reasoned.

Francis, 54, took over the reins as head coach of the Sunshine Girls in October of 2019 following the Sunshine Girls’ disappointing fifth-place finish at the NWC in Liverpool, England, that year.

She led the Jamaicans to a historic silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, last August.

Murdock, who has had over 20 years coaching experience under his belt, said that being the head coach of the Sunshine Girls team is not an easy task because there is a lot of pressure that comes with the job. But he added that his experience from coaching in the various leagues in Jamaica as well as a five-month coaching stint with the St Kitts national team in 2021 prepared him well for the position.

“It is a bigger role from the one that I have as the assistant coach because I know that it requires more and so while it is something that I am interested in, I need to think about it and I need to weigh the pros and cons and see how it fits into what I currently do now.

“You know that as the assistant coach the workload is not as heavy as the head coach in terms of the planning and decision-making, and so this now is a whole new dynamic to the process, and so while it is something that I am interested in, I also want to think about it to make sure that I am making the right decision as this time,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nicole Aiken-Pinnock, who recently led the Sunshine Girls team to a historic gold medal at the Central America and Caribbean Games in El Salvador, said once the opportunity presents itself then she will definitely give it a shot.

“If it is something that presents itself, then definitely it is something that you will have to process and think about because being the national coach is not an easy job,” said Aiken-Pinnock.

“It’s a big jump, it’s a big task, so for me I am not yet there in terms of that offer, so until then, and if it is being presented, that is when I will process the information and think about whether or not I can manage.

“I would not say that I don’t have the capability of coaching [the national team], but as you grow in whatever you are doing, you will evolve, but I know from being the captain of the Sunshine Girls team and someone who has played in the cub league in the UK [United Kingdom], I know it is not an easy task to coach at that level,” she said.