Green Hill tournament aiming to yield fruits from the village

“This is about getting people together, developing sports, and ensuring that the facilities that the government has basically invested in yields the fruits that they need to.” That’s the declaration made by Dominic Sutherland, a member of the organizing committee for the 2023 Green Hill Netball Tournament who spoke to SEARCHLIGHT last Wednesday evening.

Speaking about the rationale behind the tournament Sutherland said “When we look at our community, and when we talk about developing sports, it has to get back to the grass roots. We have to ensure that the facilities that … being made available [are] utilized so that we could find the hidden talents, so that our communities could come together.”

The 2023 Green Hill Netball Tournament got off to a bouncy start last Wednesday night, March 1, with three matches played on the courts at Green Hill before a large crowd. In the tournament’s opening game, Avenues defeated Police 39 – 21, while Netters won over Campden Park 25 – 11. In the night’s third game, Young Strugglers ran riot over Largo Heights defeating them 53 – 6.

On Thursday night, only one game was played, Avenues winning 38 – 24 over Campden Park.

Fright night’s action saw Young Strugglers defeating Netters 38 – 21, while in game two in the night’s action, Campden Park defeated Largo Height 37 – 16.

Sutherland pointed out that the next set of lead netballers are found in communities throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

“They are basically within the communities and the exposure to the games and seeing … the senior players actually displaying their talents, encourages them to basically become part and parcel and a member of the netball community.”

He was most pleased with the upward movement of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the world netball ranking, adding that the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Netball Association cannot allow whatever standards achieves to fall “Because we do not want a situation like cricket…”.

He said that the “Central Kingstown Sporting Committee is looking at developing nurseries for the next generation of sport athletes in all disciplines. So right now we have started with Netball, and are giving the young ladies an outlet to be able to ensure that they develop their skill.”

“We also have the situation where we talk about sports against crime. If you look right, now, out on the court, you’re seeing villagers, small, old, and young people. When the timeouts come, they go, they make their own shots, and the community comes together. That helps to reduce the prevalence of criminal activities around, and it also gets people to get to know other members within their community. So hopefully, we get to reduce a lot of the challenges that exist between different areas, different locations in and around the community,” Sutherland said.