THOUGH not referred to as one of the mainstream sporting disciplines, like football or track and field, netball at the UWI, Mona has boasted several victories at the Inter-Campus and Inter-Collegiate levels over the years. Additionally, in the 2009/2010 academic year, the team was crowned champions of the Supreme Ventures / Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) Divisional ‘A’ League. The structure of the programme, under the coaching of Conrad Parks, is such that there are great expectations for the upcoming academic year bearing in mind the wonderful achievements of the past. Parks has been involved with the team for roughly two academic years, becoming coach in 2008 after relinquishing the post of team manager. During his first year of coaching (2008/2009), the senior team won the Inter-Collegiate Competition. During that year the team also attended the Florida Netball Championships and was crowned champion. They boasted the record of winning all three prior stagings of the championships. In the 2009/2010 academic year, UWI Revolution participated in a JNA-hosted competition and won four of the seven matches that they played in the Open League. The team’s most recent victory, noted above, came this year when they beat Jetsetters ‘A’ 55-42 in the finals of the Supreme Ventures / JNA Divisional ‘A’ League which was played at the National Indoor Sports Centre. In directly focusing on the range of players in the squad, it may cause amazement to acknowledge that despite their agility and professionalism displayed on the court, no member of the squad plays for the Sunshine Girls, which is the National Senior Netball Team. However, Zalika Paul, who was named most valuable player of the competition boasts experience with the national team of her home country – St. Lucia. Of note too is that Paul was named Sports Woman of the Year at the 2009 UWI Sports Awards Ceremony. Parks was also named Coach of the Year at the same ceremony. In the finals of the league, Goal Shooter Alicia Williams had an accuracy rating of 89%, while Goal Attack Shawnette Kerr scored 13 goals off 18 attempts. The team’s high performance quantified by their winning 14 out of the 15 matches played in that league causes one to re-think the notion of netball being regarded as a minor sporting discipline here at Mona. The team’s achievements are really remarkable when one considers that the majority of the players only had prior involvement and experience with the sport at the high school level. When asked how a UWI, Mona student could qualify to become a member of the team, Parks noted that the individual would be required to do try-outs. He further noted that a very serious approach is taken with netball and team members must demonstrate that they have the requisite skills and knowledge of the game. This is because the main idea of netball as offered at the UWI, Mona is for competition purposes. With this in mind Parks stressed that he has taken and will continue to take a serious approach towards selecting players for the squad. Training sessions are normally held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. However, with match days for most competitions normally set for a Tuesday or a Thursday, sometimes considerable amount of time is taken up out of this general regime. General optimism is that the members of the UWI, Mona Netball Team (UWI Revolution) will soon benefit from a formal scholarship programme like their counterparts in football and track and field. A move in this direction is hoped to have certain positive spin-offs, such as, more secondary school netball stars wishing to matriculate to the UWI, Mona. Kimberly Cunningham Sports Department Writer