By Iva Wharton
Now that the Guyana Netball Association (GNA) has become a member of the American Federation of Netball Association (AFNA) improving the quality of umpires and coaches have become a priority for the association President Kim Kyte-John is advocating.
“The fact that we have been able to become a member of the AFNA (American Federation of Netball Associations) subsequently we also plan to apply to IFNA (International Federation of Netball Association) we are going to have access to E-coaching which will allow our coaches to go online and receive lectures, tutoring, guidelines and also to write their exams to empower them basically,” said Kyte-John.
The GNA, she said, would be working with AFNA to ensure that local umpires have the necessary training that is available and required at the level of AFNA.
“The umpiring has different stages with our most qualified umpire being Laver Fraser-Thomas and she is probably at the intermediate level. So we need to work on our umpires, work on them doing their courses so that they too would be in a better position to manage, referee and umpire games,” Kyte-John stated.
Kyte-John said that the GNA plans to participate in AFNA’s championships in July of next year in Trinidad.
“We plan to have international coaching assistance to prepare our team. We are in talks with the Jamaican Netball Association to provide us with that facility. “We are hoping that with that kind of assistance our team can do a good job, whether they win or lose they will go there prepared to properly participate,” she added.
This will be the first such tournament that Guyana will be competing in a fact for which the association would derive some amount of pleasure since it would mean that the country would be gaining recognition in the sport.
Kyte-John said that despite the many challenges that the association was faced with during the current year, it has managed to achieve some major successes.
“I am happy with the cooperation from the clubs, even in basic things as fund raising, “she stated.
“We were able to send off our Under-16 and Under-23 teams to international tournaments in which we brought third both times. At least we are making a name for ourselves in the Caribbean, as a country to be considered a good opponent from the other side is usually good to hear.
“We have been able to hold our Under-23 and our Open tournaments.
“Digicel sponsored the Open and that is an achievement because it’s the first of its kind. “That competition is what we call the league now and this is what we are going to try and pull off every year.”
Kyte-John said she was fully aware that the sport is not where it used to be but said her administration was working on getting the sport back on track.
Come next year, the GNA president said her administration will be looking forward to a good working relationship with the new Minister of Education Priya Manickchand.
That relationship, she said, will entail bringing the minister up to date with the association’s plans to have the sport reintroduced in the educational system.
“I can’t say that we have achieved all that we wanted to achieve, but we did achieve a substantial part.
“We have been able to send off Shanomae Pearce-Baptiste to Antigua and she and I attended the AFNA meeting in Miami, which I think opened our eyes as to how far we could go with the sport. We also saw the kind of work that we need to put in, in order to achieve greater success.”
The meetings, she said, have inspired them to return home and work harder with players, coaches, umpires and time keepers for the development of the sport.
Asked about gender balance in the sport, Kyte-John said that she while the association will be working to have more males involved in the sport. She said that it is widely known that men see the sport as a female one, but nonetheless they will be included.
Kyte-John said that the association plans to use the sport to empower women and to achieve this they are hoping on forging a good working relationship with the new minister of Human Services and Social Security Jennifer Webster. “This is the way to teach women discipline, this is the way to give some the kind of aggression that some of them need and netball could be used to do that,” Kyte-John declared.
