EMANIE Netball Club played undefeated over the weekend to nab the Sherwyn McKenzie mixed-team round-robin tournament trophy.
The national club champions won two games on Sunday to go with their three wins on Saturday at the National Gymnasium on Mandela Avenue.
All Stars finished second in the inaugural event with two wins and a draw in five games, while Eagles, who won one game and drew with the second-placed finishers, nabbed the third spot.
Rim Rockerz, the other team in the tournament, lost their three games on Saturday, and did not play on Sunday.
Organiser Sherwyn McKenzie dubbed the event a success. The netball enthusiast said that the idea of the tournament was to keep male netballers active.
Netball, which is big in the Caribbean (Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines), is predominantly a female sport, but males do play, mostly on a local level.
For the mixed-team tournament it was mandatory for two males to be on court at all times (seven players in total on court) with another as a substitute. McKenzie pointed out that most of the teams used all the males for the duration of the games.
Two males made notable contributions: Warren Wilson, who played goal defence and centre was named the most valuable player while Sean Thomas (goal attacker) nabbed the most goals for Eagles (36).
Emanie’s goal shooter Angeline Dyer scored 66 goals while teammate Carnecia Perreira added 55.  Goal attacker Shonette Estwick led the All Stars with 50 while Kristy Roberts was the Rim Rockerz’s top goalscorer with 28.
On Saturday, Emanie defeated Eagles 21-6, Rim Rockerz 33-10 and All Stars 40-9; while on Sunday they defeated Eagles 38-20 and All-Stars 36-16.
All-Stars won against Rim Rockerz 17-13 and drew with Eagles 24-24 on Saturday while on Sunday they claimed a 29-28 win over Eagles.
McKenzie hopes to make the tournament more national next year with the inclusion of a team each from Berbice and Essequibo.

INDIVIDUAL IMPROVEMENT
Despite the victory, of what was dubbed the first official mixed-team tournament, coach of Emanie, Lavern Fraser-Thomas, was not overly excited about her club’s performance.  She said that she was “satisfied, given the preparation time”.   
What Fraser-Thomas did note was the “individual improvement” of some members of the other clubs.
She, however, felt that their team’s synergy, which is more important than individual performance, was lacking.