Samuel commends under-23s despite near winless OECS run

Coach of the Antigua and Barbuda under-23 netball team, Shenneth Samuel, believes the country’s young squad will take much away from the recently-concluded OECS Under-23 Championships held in St. Kitts.
The national team was defeated in four of their five matches, winning only their final match of the competition, beating Nevis 45-13.
“We take away the experience that we gathered as a coach, as players and I am not going to say it didn’t go as planned because we have been out for a while and we all know that and, as I said, were going with our hopes up not really knowing what the other countries had to offer because we haven’t seen them play for a long time,” she said. 
Samuel, a former national player, said the aim was certainly not to win the tournament since it would have been the country’s first in over five years. She added however, that it was pleasing to see how the young players coped under pressure.
“We know where we are starting from and the work we have to put in and the girls, their spirits were up all the time so we know that coming into next year and it’s a young team that we have, so they all should be there hoping to join some others for the next time around,” she said. 
Team manager and also a former national player, Chaka Grant, commended the girls on their comportment throughout the tournament while she added that she hopes, in the future, the players could have more time together ahead of the tournament.
“The only thing is that I would want the team to be in a camp before we travel because certain things would pop up after you’ve traveled, but if we get in a camp early enough then everything else would go smoothly,” Grant said.
In their other matches, Antigua and Barbuda went under to St. Lucia 42-12, lost to St. Vincent and the Grenadines 37-13 before they were defeated by Dominica 29-18. The Antiguans went under in their opening match by a 52-19 margin.