On the netball tour to St Kitts in April this year, what I experienced was not at all what I expected. Before we left our coach had told us: “You are no longer competing in Bermuda’s Saturday netball leagues; it has become a competition between countries that are travelling to St Kitts just for this tournament and they aren’t coming for fun, they are coming to win.”We were told while travelling to St Kitts that all the competing islands would “be out to get” Bermuda because we had won the tournament in the previous year. You would think our job seemed simple: win all our games, and bring the trophy back to Bermuda. It sounded easy enough, or so I thought!Our first game was against Anguilla. I sat on the bench. I didn’t mind though. I was satisfied to just be able to watch and observe how certain teams played, so that when I got my chance, I would go into the game with a good idea of what to expect and what was expected of me. I carefully analysed each player, and picked out their strengths and weaknesses, becoming very mindful of the different strategies which they used. I also encouraged my teammates by informing them of my observations. The girls from the different teams were very aggressive and skilled, but they weren’t the only ones; for Bermuda as well had risen to the occasion and played very aggressively and you could see that we were hungry for a second win!In our group (besides us) there were three other teams that we were required to play twice: Anguilla, Guyana and the home team, St Kitts. When the teams played (mainly St Kitts) you had to have great discipline and remain focused over the increasing number of St Kittian supporters that had come out to support. St Kitts was our toughest competitors, but in the end Bermuda pulled through and ended up defeating the team twice in the tournament.Other than playing netball we did many other activities such as the opening candle lighting ceremony, breakfast with the stars and even a cultural night which was so much fun and involved all the girls in the tournament. I also met a lot of new people whom I still keep in contact with on Facebook and MSN.Bermuda also became very close friends with the girls from Guyana and the girls from Trinidad and Tobago whom we shared a hotel with. They are just like us basically; they are just from different countries. We would exchange laughs when we heard each other talk because we both thought each other had funny accents. Also when we had downtime we would go swimming in the hotel pool, sleep, watch TV, walk around the hotel and on the last few days of our trip we went on a tour of the island and went shopping at a local tourist mall. At the mall we got to hold a baby monkey! I was so excited, and it tickled when it climbed all over my head and shoulders, they were very light and had a soft fur coat. I enjoyed my trip to St Kitts and I am definitely looking forward to trying out for next year’s Netball U16 team too.