THE Latter-Days Saints College netball team has improved on their performance compared with the past years and now will turn their focus on the nationals during the first week of the second term school holiday in Labasa.

Vice-principal Sereseini Qalovaki said it was hard to get the girls interested in playing netball.

“We have majority of students who love basketball because they have been playing that sport from primary school and telling them to switch to netball was a big challenge,” Qalovaki said.

“With the new policy that was implemented this year which was one sport per person it really made the work easier for the players and the coaches so it was one person only concentrating on one sport.”

U15 team coach Malcom Williams said it took the whole school to nurture these young players to balance study and training.

“In this year’s Suva competition we had lost once and in the pool games we drew with Ballantine Memorial School and this is the first time LDS has made it to the national competition,” Williams said.

“Our school is known for basketball but we’re trying to lift the standard of netball in the school.

“The girls have taken the concept and the only thing they can do now is win against BMS in Labasa.

“Last year we lost out in the quarter-final and those girls have moved up in the under-17 so this is a new group of girls and it’s amazing how other schools look at me as the male coach but I’ve played netball before in New Zealand so whatever I’ve learnt I’ve passed it to them.”

Williams added that schools such as ACS, St Joseph’s Secondary School and Suva Grammar will be a threat to them during the Fiji Secondary Schools netball competition in Labasa next week.