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Coach Nevers looks to develop national players from clinic
February 03, 2023
Former Sunshine Girls assistant coach Winston Nevers is eyeing the development of a cadre of skills that will reap more rewards from the young players who will participate in the upcoming 'Future Netball Academy clinic.
The brainchild of former national goal shooter Jodi-Ann French-Kentish, Nevers will be the head coach of the programme, which will tip off on February 25 at 10 a.m. on the grounds of Scotiabank netball court in Liguanea, St Andrew. This will be the second consecutive annual staging.
"We are planning to bring in other coaches including the national coach (Connie Francis) to help us with the programme. We are also looking at taking the girls to some overseas classics to expose them a little bit more.
"The 15, 16 and 17 year group, which we had from last year, have been doing well now so we are seeing if we could improve from ages six upwards. We will be teaching them to develop their catching, passing and understanding the court movements along with shooting and defending," said Nevers.
The experienced netball coach also hinted at the adaptation of a new style of play, which he has copied from watching world-beaters Australia and New Zealand over the years, in which they constantly work on ball movement using a total of four-six balls repeatedly to improve concentration level.
"We are looking at the decision making, concentration and awareness because they also help them in their schoolwork. Some have said they help when they're doing their exam, so there is where we want to really push. When you look at the Australians and New Zealanders, they always train with four-six balls at once.
"So this helps to develop their concentration more, but most of the time in Jamaica we as coaches only train with one or two balls so it doesn't really help the concentration that much," he added.
Nevers believes the next stage of the clinic will help the players from the camp get the attention of some of the top local coaches, which in turn could propel the athletes into the national programme.
"That'll be when we have children that scouts can come in and look at. Scouts, meaning the national coaches, can come and bring in players from our programme into the national squad.
"Another thing would be the scholarship aspect. You have high schools attending and taking primary school players and that is an avenue as well so it starts from there until it gets bigger. So we are looking at the national coaches to attend to take players into their programme," said Nevers.
