Stars of the Courts All Sectors Netball League heads over to Grenada this weekend as part of the Team Burke-Browne Foundation contingent to help open the Grenada Netball Association’s (GNA) Intersector League at the Tanteen Netball Complex in St George’s.
This year, GNA has themed its league, Netball vs Cancer (NvC), and as such all participating teams will don NvC bibs as part of their uniforms throughout the competition.
Led by former national centre-court player Rhonda John-Davis, the ASNL All Star team will compete in the feature match on the opening day and Rally Tournament on Saturday from 5 pm.
John-Davis, who is also the national Under-21 coach, will serve as both coach and player on a team that include the best players of this year’s season like three-time ASNL “Most Valuable Player” centre-court player Candice Guerero, national senior captain Joelisa Cooper and Kalifa Mc Collin, national youth skipper.
Afeisha Noel and Jellene Richardson, who were named on the ASNL team for their outstanding play this season which ended in March, will not be available for the trip so the team will have one player short and Nichelle Hinds will fill the other spot.
After the official opening, there will be a rally tournament followed by an exhibition match between the ASNL All Star team and the Intersector All Star team.
The Foundation was established in honour of Angela Burke-Browne, who passed away from cancer in July 2014. Burke-Browne represented her country at the highest level in three different disciplines of sport, netball, basketball and track and field.
Her daughter Jaime Browne is the coordinator of the non-profit organisation, whose mission is to execute global initiatives to heighten cancer awareness and provide support to less fortunate families in particular single parent homes.
“The Foundation is humbled by the opportunity. We are extremely thankful to Glynis Roberts, president of Grenada Netball Association who did not hesitate agreeing to collaborate on the effort. The idea of using our sport to create a platform to reach a wider audience and educate them about this terrible disease is invaluable,” said Browne.
The group brought the cause to T&T last year from the US, when it hosted the inaugural NvC tournament at the Central Indoor Sports Arena in Chaguanas, then travelled to Shaw Park hard courts pavillion in Tobago in May.
Using netball again to fight against the deadly disease has expanded to Grenada as the Foundation teams up with the netballers from the Caribbean neighbour to spread cancer awareness.