Sunshine Girls relaxed ahead of Commonwealth bow
Published:Thursday | July 28, 2022 | 12:10 AMRobert Bailey/Gleaner Writer
HEAD COACH of Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls, Connie Francis, is seeing a more relaxed team ahead of their opening match against Wales at the Commonwealth Games on Friday.
That relaxation has come after the Sunshine Girls thrashed Uganda, 63-37, during a practice match yesterday.
The game will prove to be the Jamaicans only warm-up ahead of tomorrow’s start of the games in Birmingham, England.
The veteran coach said she was very happy all 12 players got an opportunity to get a blowout against the Ugandans before the competition.
“We have been here for a little while and two of our practice games were cancelled and we were lucky to have gotten a practice against Uganda, which is very important for us to see where we are at collectively as a team playing against another team,” said Francis.
“I was quite impressed with our defensive unit, because they are coming out of the Australian league and so that unit has been very solid,” she said.
Attacking unit
“The link with our attacking unit is something that we have been working on and I have seen it coming together because our shooters are shooting high 90s, which is really good,” Francis said.
The Sunshine Girls, who are ranked fourth in the world, captured the bronze medal at the last Commonwealth Games four years ago on the Gold Coast in Australia.
However, they finished a disappointing fifth at the last World Championships in Liverpool, England in 2019.
Francis pointed out that the team has moved on from that disappointing performance and the players are now in very high spirits going into the Games.
“We are not going to get overconfident because we are going to take each game as it comes and so we are just eager for the games to start and to judge how to make our adjustments,” she said.
“What I can say is that all the girls went on court against Uganda, and they played really well,” Francis stated.
“They are feeling confident and that is important and they are healthy, and we are just ready to go now.”