Preparations are under way before a busy summer of international competition for Bermuda’s netballers.

The Bermuda Netball Association has announced that its senior and under-19 national teams are preparing for the USANA/Canada Developmental Under-19 Series in Florida in July and the AFNA 2018 Netball World Cup Qualifiers in Barbados in August.

Both tournaments have been included on the Americas Federation of Netball Association’s schedule of events, designed to stimulate continued growth of the sport throughout the region while offering an opportunity for its members to maintain or improve their world ranking. Bermuda are 28th in the world rankings.

“The World Cup qualifiers in Barbados were the brainchild of the AFNA, which Bermuda is a part of,” Kimale Evans, the BNA president, said.

“They [AFNA] said we need to do more within our region to offer matches and tournaments that can be International Netball Federation sanctioned in order for us to improve our ranking, be competitive and also build camaraderie within our region.

“We have to play eight matches in a two-year period and having played our last bit of matches were able to get ranked last year. It would be a good start to hopefully get down and play a good bulk of games as well as have some competitive matches that will count towards ranking.”

As for July’s USANA/Canada Developmental Under-19 Series, Evans said:

“This tournament will give us the opportunity to observe the progress of our junior players and their potential to rise to the ranks of the senior national team.”

The BNA is also exploring the possibility of having Bermuda compete at the Jean Pierre Youth Netball Championship in the Caribbean.

“That is on the calendar of events but nothing has been confirmed,” Evans said. “We suffer with budget so when we go to tournaments we need to get bang for our buck. While we would love to have the funding to go to different preparation tournaments, we have to look into the schedules and choose the tournaments that will benefit us in more ways than one.”

The annual BNA All-Star Weekend at Bernard Park tomorrow will provide the national netball selectors with a chance to scout potential players for the upcoming tournaments.

Donations will be accepted during the event to help offset costs of competing at the upcoming events.

“We would love for the community to come out and support and make donations towards our programme,” Evans said.

“We are a registered charity and it’s important, not only that we want them help us have the international exposure, but that they can actually get to witness our number-one female sport on the island. A lot of people don’t realise that netball is very intense and takes a lot of physical fitness in order to participate in it. It’s also a very family-friendly environment and if people are looking for camaraderie in a competitive nature then it’s definitely the place to be for sure.”