Henry-Wright: We are ready to go

National senior netball head coach Sasher-Gaye Henry-Wright says the Sunshine Girls will be at full strength and should be firing on all cylinders when they face Caribbean rivals Trinidad and Tobago in their opening match of the Commonwealth Games Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, today.

The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Jamaica time, with the Sunshine Girls looking to make a strong start to the tournament after capturing a historic silver medal at the previous Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, four years ago.

Although the Sunshine Girls are entering the championships after losing their last two international series against England and Australia, Henry pointed out that the team was without several senior players for both series. With a full-strength squad now available, she is confident the Jamaica team is ready to begin its campaign on a winning note.

“I am more excited now to get the games started and so we just really want to use this game to start well,” said Henry-Wright

“We want to use all our rotations as best we can and to get all our girls going towards our big test on day two.” The Sunshine Girls are ranked fourth in the world four places above Trinidad and Tobago.

However, despite this Henry noted that her players will not be taking Trinidad and Tobago lightly.

“We are not expecting a walkover, we know that Trinidad are one of our fiercest rivals and we expect that they are going to come strong and so we want to start and put in a good shift with all our strategies that we have been working on because I want to see how well the girls will execute them in this first game,” she said.

Henry pointed out that their focus is firmly on advancing through the preliminary rounds one match at a time.

“For our zone, we are really not underestimating anybody because we want to take it one game at a time and so we just really want to do well in the rounds and make it through these rounds and then take it to the next phase of competition,” Henry-Wright said.

“These are all strong teams because they are the best eight teams in the world and so I am expecting some exciting games throughout the competition.”

Henry-Wright also stated that the team’s recent training camp in Durham, England, has helped prepare the players for the challenges ahead.

“We had a good one-week camp in Durham, we had two practice games and we really were just looking at our combinations because we had a short time to put everybody together,” she said.

“We used those games to work on some stuff and so see how well the players adjusted to each other while playing some high-intensity netball,” Henry-Wright underscored.

With preparations complete, Henry-Wright said confidence is high within the camp as the Sunshine Girls begin their quest for a first-ever Commonwealth Games gold medal.

“I am feeling positive and the ladies are feeling positive and we are ready to go.”