Glenmuir cautious but aim to defend netball titles
Defending champions Glenmuir High School's coach, Ryan Reid, is cautious about retaining the Rural Area's ISSA Senior schoolgirls netball title despite securing a big win against Central High on Tuesday in their opening match this season.
Their 39-35 victory over Manchester High School in the final last year was the first time Glenmuir pocketed netball silverware, and they later defeated Urban Area's ISSA Senior champions, St Catherine High, 41-25 to claim the All Island title.
On Tuesday, Reid's charges started excellently, brushing aside Central 64-6, with their Juniors also conquering their Central counterparts 43-3.
Reid, despite the massive win, was circumspect about taking the Senior title, having only retained three players from last year's winning team, despite still harbouring ambitions of preserving their title successes of last year.
"It was a good start for the team as the aim is to retain both Rural and All Island titles this year. It was a big win, but it is early days as we will have to play more matches to see where the problems to be fixed," Reid said.
"Our task will be a bit more difficult this time as we have only retained three players from last year's winning team, in goal defence, Lisa Powell; wing attack, Avalon Neill; and goalkeeper Fentonian Henry.
"We are relying on some members of our under-16 team from last year who have now graduated to the Senior to play pivotal roles in our chances of going all the way," he stated.
Last year, Glenmuir's Junior lost to Holmwood in the final, and with the help of some of those players, he expects to get through Zone F in the Senior competition easily.
"We should be able to top our group and move to the inter-zone round despite Denbigh in the group. We, however, cannot take them lightly as they used to dominate this group in former years, but as defending champions, we want to win again, and we are very confident that we can top the group and go all the way," he said.