As Sunshine girls are out and about preparing for the major tournaments for the next two years, Nicole Dixon-Rochester, a netball player believes that the Jamaican Girls have a long way to go before reaching their full potential. Sunshine girls beat Tobago girls to a 73-22, 71-22, and 64-32 win recently at the National Indoor Sports Centre. This win moved them up to the fourth position. Sunshine girls are expected to face the Roses of England in a challenging match come next month. The two teams are expected to play against each other in three matches. While the Jamaican Sunshine girls are currently ranked in the fourth position in the world, the Roses are currently ahead of them in the third position.

Dixon- Rochester went on to say that they were working on different drills because they had experienced both good and bad moments after the match against the Calypso girls. The 26-year-old admits that they have to work even harder in order to perform better against other teams. They expect nothing but high competition and therefore they need to work on their ball control, ball movement, agility, and fastness. They also have to work on how to exert more pressure and when to keep it low.

She also said that the team is also focusing on the commonwealth games that will happen next summer in Birmingham, England. They are certain that they will also participate in the Netball World Cup held in Cape Town, South Africa in 2023.

Dixon believes that the match against Trinidad & Tobago helped them identify the areas to improve as well as their main strengths. The team looks forward to going face to face with the Roses of England and also the Commonwealth Games. Dixon currently plays for Manchester Spurs and is one of the best Netballers in Jamaica. However, she has been inactive since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

She is versatile at the center and can also play as a winger. She made the match lively against the Calypso girls where she made incisive releases and precise interceptions, helping the team to overpower the T&T girls. She was awarded the honor of the best player after the second hurdle of the match.

After the long break due to the coronavirus, Dixon feels that she did fairly well as she had not competed since 2020. She is optimistic that she will achieve some of the goals she has set. She says that playing with the national team gave her the exposure that she needed to start off on the right foot. The match made her realize her fitness abilities and her body’s reactions to physical exercise.

Dixon appreciates T&T for accepting to participate in the friendly match. It helped the girls gain experience of playing with different styles as they anticipate playing in the tournament against The Roses and in the Commonwealth Games. The sunshine girls were given a bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games held in Australia 2018.