Jamaica’s Under-21 netballers called “Covid babies” by head coach Anett Daley, will finally get some action when they play South Africa’s Under-21s in three games.

Netball Jamaica released the names of the players and Roxonna McClean has been named captain.

The full list of the team members are:

• Defence: Roxonna McClean, Tiana Reid, Crystal Nicholson, Fentonian Henry, Evelyn Smith. Centre Court: Jessica Champlain, Shaqwan Hamilton, Deandra Edwards, De-Eziah Martin, Mikeala Walker
• Shooting: Kelliann Hunter, Leneice Williams, Nickiesha Powell, Kaydeen Gordon, Jada Ricketts

“For this particular Under 21, I call them the COVID babies or the COVID team, because they ended up in a time frame where even for Under 16 they didn’t get any under 16 competition because it was during COVID and their high school and also college experiences were interrupted because of COVID,” said Daley.

The Under-21s will play three games as curtain raisers to the Sunshine Girl versus South Africa Test Series. The match times are January 18 – 3:00 pm, January 22 – 3:30 pm and January 25 – 3:00 pm.

The senior team matches will be played at 6:00 pm, 7:00 pm and 6:00 pm respectively all inside the National Indoor Sports Centre.

Daley welcomes the series for the Under 21 team as they have not had a lot of netball competition.

 “This series is a welcome one for the Under 21 team. The girls have not been playing in any form of competition since they went to Guadeloupe for the qualifiers and there were some members of the Guadeloupe team that have stopped playing,” she explained.

So right now, it’s about just putting the teams together based on those who were there before and the new members coming into the squad. It is also about exposing the girls to the different styles of play,” Daley added.

She continued: “So the level of competition that we would want them to have experienced prior, that they do not have. But the amazing thing is that our local coaches have done a wonderful job with these young ladies, especially in the high schools and as a result, we have an abundance of talent.

“My task right now is to work with the other coaches to ensure that these girls understand the game and this particular series will give us a benchmark from which to work so that we are ready for the world championship.”