The Jamaica national netball team, commonly known as the Sunshine Girls, represent Jamaica in international

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

competitions. Netball is not only the number one women's sport in Jamaica but also the number one team sport in the island, based on World Rankings and recent history and the majority of the schools in Jamaica participate. Netball receives full media coverage on television, radio and in newspapers but does not get as much coverage as less successful team sports such as football and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

. Jamaica were coached by former representative Oberon Pitterson, and captained by midcourt veteran Nadine Bryan up to the end of 2013. However, a Technical Director (

Jill McIntosh Jill McIntosh is a former Australia netball international and national team head coach. As a player, McIntosh was a member of the Australia team that won the gold medal at the 1983 World Netball Championships. She later coached Australia at t ...

) and new coach (Minneth Reynolds), were appointed in early 2014. As of 1 July 2020, Jamaica are fourth in the

INF World Rankings The World Netball Rankings are published by the World Netball to make it possible to compare the relative strengths of internationally active national netball teams. Initially, rankings were based on the results from the World Netball Championships ...

. The senior Jamaican netball team is widely known as the Sunshine Girls, the Jamaican Fast 5 netball team is known as Jamaica Fast5 or the FAST5 Girls.

History

Netball in Jamaican schools started in 1909. In 1959, the Jamaica Netball Association was formed and affiliated with the West Indies Netball Board. Jamaica was invited to compete at the 1959 West Indies Tournament held in August in Montserrat. Since their debut international game in 1959, the Sunshine Girls have participated in every

INF Netball World Cup The Netball World Cup is a quadrennial international netball world championship organised by the World Netball, inaugurated in 1963. Since its inception the competition has been dominated primarily by the Australia national netball team and ...

, never finishing below sixth. Jamaica placed third in three World Championships – in 1991, 2003 and 2007. They have played in all six

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the ex ...

netball events to date, winning a bronze medal in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

in Manchester, 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland and 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia. Pitterson was appointed the new head coach for the Sunshine Girls at the

2011 World Netball Championships The 2011 World Netball Championships was the 13th edition of the INF Netball World Cup, a quadrennial premier event in international netball. It was held in Singapore from 3–10 July. All 48 matches were played at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Si ...

in Singapore. Longstanding captain Simone Forbes did not attend the World Championships after testing positive the banned substance Clomiphene and was replaced by Nadine Bryan. Forbes subsequently retired, ending her illustrious career. After failing to medal in 2011, some of the experienced players on the squad decided to take a break from the national team, while

Althea Byfield Althea Latoya Byfield (born 28 November 1982 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican international basketball and netball player. Byfield has represented Jamaica in both sports, and is a current member of the Jamaican netball team. ...

chose to retire, as they had grown disgruntled with embattled coach Pitterson.

Malysha Kelly Malysha Kelly (born 14 January 1990) is a Jamaican netball player, who has made over 50 appearances for the national side, and is a former captain. At club level, she most recently played for Severn Stars in the Netball Superleague. Club car ...

Romelda Aiken Romelda Aiken-George (néé Aiken) (born 19 November 1988) is a Jamaican netball player. Aiken debuted for the Jamaica national team in 2005 as a replacement for regular shooter Elaine Davis. The shooter rose to international prominence durin ...

took over co-captaining duties at the 2013

Fast5 Fast5 (originally called Fastnet) is a variation of netball featuring shortened games and goals worth multiple points. The new format was announced by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) (now the International Netball Fede ...

tournament and Kelly continued to captain the team in the first half of 2014.

Nicole Aiken-Pinnock Nicole Alicia Aiken-Pinnock (née Aiken; born 11 December 1985) is a Jamaican netball player. Pinnock started playing international representative netball as early as 2004, although she made her senior debut in the Jamaica national team, the Su ...

took over as captain ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and also captained them at the 2015 Netball World Cup. The team has since won

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receiv ...

s in both the

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

and

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, ...

, with the latter medal having been won against two-time gold medallists

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

Players

2022 squad

The current squad was selected for the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England b ...

Notable past players

* Connie Francis * Elaine Davis * Simone Forbes *

Carla Borrego Carla Borrego (born 11 November 1983), also known as Carla Williams and Carla Williams-Borrego, is a former Jamaica netball international. She was a member of the Jamaica team that won the bronze medal at the 2003 World Netball Championships. ...

* Oberon Pitterson

Most-capped Jamaican netballers

Competitive history

Kit suppliers

Jamaica's kits are currently supplied by

Gilbert Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters *Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South A ...

External links

Sunshine Girls Squad

SSG at NWC

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamaica National Netball Team National netball teams of the Americas Netball in Jamaica