Commit yourself to development of the game – Foster

Long-standing president and founder of the Ashburton Sports and Cultural Organization (ASCO) Dennisford Foster is apportioning blame on the state of netball in St Vincent and the Grenadines, to netballers themselves.

 Speaking at the opening of the 2017 ASCO Netball Festival, last Saturday at the Gomea Methodist hard court, Foster outlined his course of thinking.

“I have been hearing over the years that netball is going down, netball is dead… But who plays netball…? Who makes netball what it is …? It is you, the players!” Foster stated.

“If you want to see netball strive again in St Vincent and the Grenadines you must make it happen… You must not see netball as a sport that is dying, but as a sport in which you are involved,” Foster told the netballers present at the opening.

Foster contended that administrators over the years have worked to restore netball to the days when it was “the pride of sports in this country.” Therefore, it was time for the players themselves to make their input.

“You must play your part… You must therefore take the game very seriously. I want to encourage netballers to play the game of netball with pride and dignity. You must have a goal in mind … It should not be only to come to the hard court and jump up and get a sweat … It [should] be because you want to achieve something [from] being involved,” Foster encouraged.

Also present were area representative Cecil Mc Kie and a representative from the Division of Sports and Physical Education, Hazell Ann Foster.

Five primary schools – the Gomea Methodist, Belmont Government, Belair Government, Sion Hill Government and Dorsetshire Hill Government – are contesting the primary schools’ category of the ASCO netball festival.

And, ASCO 1, 2, 3 and 4, Pace Setters, Young Strugglers, Everready Future Stars, Valley Scorchers, Greiggs Juniors and Island Blends Success Netters 1 and  2, are the other units registered.

Young Strugglers are the last winners of the competition, which did not see any action in 2016, while the 2015 edition was a village affair.