Dar to field three teams in EA netball championship

Three netball teams will represent the country at the coming East and Central Africa Netball Club Championship slated to take place in Kenya mid next month.

Netball Association of Tanzania (CHANETA) chairperson Anna Bayi mentioned the teams as JKT Mbweni, Jeshi Stars and Ministry of Home Affairs’ team.

She said the three teams were selected to represent the country in the tournament after grabbing the top three positions in the national netball club championship in Mwanza last year.

Bayi said she is optimistic the three teams will excel at the tournament because the majority of the players forming the squads also play for the national team.

“We hope the teams will perform well because half of the national team players are from those three clubs and they will use their experience in the tournament,” said Bayi.

She said she is happy that after years of absence on the international scene local clubs are now playing in the competitive regional tournament, adding that the development was good for netball growth in the country.

Meanwhile, Bayi said CHANETA will keep Mary Protas as the national team coach.

She said Protas has proved that she is a good coach by guiding the national team to success in the first ever five nations tournament in Singapore in which the team finished fourth, apart from helping Tanzania secure a fifth position on the International Federation for Netball Associations (IFNA) ranking.

Bayi also said her association has tasked the newly graduated netball coaches to introduce youth competitions in their respective areas so the country could have many netball players.

The newly graduated coaches received their certificates last week after completing a two-week coaching course.

The function was held at Filbert Bayi Secondary School in Coast Region.