Williams

Jamaica Netball Association president, Marva Bernard, has welcomed the return of former netball star Carla Williams to the sport after her six-year hiatus during which she took up a basketball scholarship at the University of Miami to pursue a Liberal Arts degree.

Williams recently signed for ANZ Netball Championship team Adelaide Thunderbirds to join fellow Jamaicans Romelda Aiken and Althea Byfield in the Trans-Tazman league.

Bernard is hoping that Williams' return to the sport will also mean a return to the national programme for the explosive goal shooter, who last represented the country at the 2003 World Netball Championships here in Jamaica.

Said Bernard: "Once a Sunshine Girl always a Sunshine Girl. It's great that she is back in the sport and I look forward to seeing her back in the programme. The selectors will, of course, do their job but she being back will increase our chances to have a really deep talent pool of girls to choose from.

"The fact that she is back playing netball and that she will be playing at that level will augur well for Jamaica," she added.

"When she went on her basketball scholarship, we tried everything to get her to represent us at the World Championships in 2007, but her basketball coach would not allow her because it fell in the middle of their season," Bernard shared. "She was very interested in playing but could do nothing about coming because, of course, she was on a basketball scholarship."