Just a week after Jamaica’s whitewash in Australia and New Australia, 2 – 0 and 3- 0 respectively, I caught up with the young, talented and humble “Sunshine Girl” Malysha Kelly. Born in the parish of St. Catherine, Kelly started playing sports at the tender age of twelve. She was a lover of track and field and only played Netball for fun during her spare time. However, this six feet tall and flexible netball player was not to have gone unnoticed because her coaches in high school saw the need to unlock her potential in netball.

After nurturing and grooming this soft spoken yet determined netballer’s talent at Dinthill Technical High School, Kelly was soon to be called to higher service: a representative of the Jamaica National Netball Association, the national body responsible for Netball. This call to service came very early in Kelly’s life; she was only thirteen when the association chose her as a suitable candidate to be trained for the under sixteen squad. Kelly exclaims, “Back then it was exciting knowing that you would probably play for your country and you would be among the best players in Jamaica at that age!” With that thought as one of her inspirations, Kelly progressed to the under- twenty one squad and then to the senior team where she now competes defensively in the roles of goal defence and or goal keeper at major tournaments both locally and internationally.

I could not help but ask Kelly about the white washed series against Australia and New Zealand played away from home two weeks ago. Kelly’s response to my question was “the series was basically aimed at giving young players like me experience because even though I have played individual matches against these teams I have never played them in a series before. On the other hand I’ve seen where I can improve in my game so it’s not all bad that we lost since we can all go back to the drawing board and improve our game. Furthermore these series are designed to prepare us for the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games”. The Sunshine Girls are currently in the middle of another two day tournament against England at The National Indoor Sports Centre where their first match was played on Wednesday September 1, 2010 with a 53-42 loss to England. The second match that was played on Friday resulted in a victory that was well overdue for the national team. Kelly was an integral part of this victory; a 52 – 45 decisive win over their English counterparts.

Malysha Kelly is currently a student of the University of the West Indies where she resides on The Mary Seacole Hall and is pursuing a major in International Relations in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Malysha had this to say about her time management skills, “Even though I have to train four times per week I have not encountered any real challenge as yet except for a shocker in the second week of my first semester where I had to go abroad to represent my country and it was rather difficult trying to catch up with the other students”. She’s however thankful for the University of West Indies Our Virtual learning Environment for its assistance both here and abroad since lecturers sometimes post their notes online.

With goals in mind to be an excellent defender on the court, completing a degree in International Relations and ensuring a healthy personal life, Kelly is motivated to go on each day by her role models Oberon Pitterson and Althea Byfield. Oberon Pitterson is her motivator because of her determination to succeed on the court regardless of the challenges faced and Althea Byfield for her tremendous interpersonal skills which assists Kelly’s personal development. Both players, she attests, bring to her life a contrasting yet complementary quality.

In the year 2010 and beyond the University of The West Indies will be shifting the horizon in sports by developing world class sporting facilities for training, competition and recreation. This will be extended to the wider community, helping to create an environment well equipped to facilitate and encourage healthy relationships between the University of The West Indies and the community. Kelly, to some extent, believes that the university is doing what it can to help the wider community, “I am at the University of The West Indies on a full scholarship, however I believe that the University should look into the issue of offering more scholarships to netballers because there are footballers and athletes who are on scholarships. Moreover I think it is much easier knowing that while you are studying, or playing for the University it is giving back in the best way possible”.

Malysha left these encouraging words for netballers aspiring to go beyond the tertiary level “Even though the sport is not like Athletics, or Football it’s basically Jamaica’s number one team sports and one reason why that is a fact, is that people who play Netball normally play it for love so if you’re planning to get involved at the professional level, there must first be a love for the sport. Next, you have to be committed, you must practice hard and you have to be a team player and most importantly you have to be very disciplined.”

Sasha-Gaye Fraser

UWI Sports Department Writer