You say netball - you say Jans! St. Kitts/Nevis' Netball Icon

I found this story and could not resist copying it to my blog as it highlights one of our Caribbean Netball Icons. I heard a lot of Jans when I was coming up in netball. It is a real pity that netball has fallen off so much, but this is the case throughout the Caribbean as Keith Joseph bemoans in his Olympism Column on the state of netball in St. Vincent. Jans hold the same status as a Ballantyne of St. Vincent, Harper-Hall of Barbados, Lystra Lewis of Trinidad and Tobago, and Yvette of Antigua.

This Curtis Morton Sn. Commentary is taken from the website
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/oped/oped.php?news_id=12761&start=0&category_id=6

Curtis Morton has been a sports journalist on Nevis for two decades. He has been instrumental in initiating a female cricket league and sports awards on Nevis.

Everybody who knows anything about sports on the island of Nevis knows that once you mention the sport of netball, the automatic name of choice would be “Jans”!

Jeanette Grell-Hull affectionately referred to as Jans is as vivacious and as refreshing to look at, as any teenager. Her youthful athletic outlook belies the fact that this is a woman who is already drawing on her Social Security pension. She was born on the 17th April 1946.

Surprisingly, this netball enthusiast only got involved with the game of netball at age twenty-five. That is when she organized the first netball team on the island. The team was called Sneakers. In those days, there were no established courts and so the team practiced on primitively-marked courts, firstly at the Charlestown Secondary school grounds and then at Grove Park. The makeshift courts were mainly marked with diesel.

At Grove Park, the netballers were an endangered species because as they practiced close to the hill at the Eastern end of the ground, they were sometimes struck by the cricket balls, sent in their general direction from the cricketers who were utilising the main playing area of Grove Park.

Jans not only played the game but was also instrumental in the marking of the court, ably assisted by Millicent Wade in most instances. Former Nevis off-spinner and well-known mechanic, Harold Walters, eventually donated two poles, skillfully using tyre rims as the base.

In April of 1972, a group of individuals came together to form the Nevis Netball Association. At the helm of this group was Jans’ mother, Cicely Grell-Hull. She was elected president and Jans served on the Association as one of the founding members.

The first organised netball tournament was held that same year with just three teams competing: CSS, Mountain Rockers and Sneakers, which had players like Jans, Lyra Richards and Joyce O’Connor. The CSS team won the very exciting tournament as they boasted of two of the best shooters ever known in Nevis: Joya Clarke and Bernadette Bartlette.

That same year in August, the Caribbean Netball championship came to nearby St Kitts and, despite the inexperience of the players, the Nevis Netball Association registered and sent a team. Jans was unable to play due to a broken hand. The Nevis team placed in the cellar position out of the nine competing teams, but gained tremendous experience.

In 1973, Jans represented Nevis as the goal shooter in the Caribbean tournament held in Trinidad. Nevis placed last but in a winning cause versus Montserrat, as the seconds ticked away, Jans scored the crucial goal to win that encounter.

1979 was a big year for netball on Nevis. In preparation for the world tournament, a combined St Kitts and Nevis team had to be selected. Fifteen players from each island were chosen for practice and trials. However, all of the practice sessions were held in St Kitts. The ferry service was far from adequate but a determined Jans and Cresentia O’Flaherty stuck to the task and travelled via fishing boats in many instances to meet the scheduled appointments. Eventually they were the only two players selected from Nevis. However, during the tournament, they were never allowed to play on the team at the same time.

Jans recalls an incident during that tournament. St Kitts-Nevis was engaging Ireland and. she was the goal shooter in the match. The captain asked her to fake an injury so that the other top shooter from St Kitts, Gillian Musgrave could finish the game. Jans continued playing, totally ignoring the captain. All the while, Gillian Musgrave was warming up at courtside. St Kitts-Nevis beat Ireland by one goal. Guess who shot the winning goal? Jeanette Grell-Hull! Her coach later complimented her for her excellent play under pressure.

All this time, local tournaments on Nevis were still being played on shabbily marked grass courts. However, an incident occurred that would change the netball experience on the island in a permanent way. A team from Molineaux in St Kitts, visited to play against a team from Nevis. Rain fell and washed out the primitive markings and halted the match. Then Premier of St Kitts-Nevis, Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw, was so upset when he got the report, that he commissioned a hard court to be built at the site where the Players Pavilion now stands at the Nevis Netball Complex. This was promptly surrounded with used galvanize and coconut branches and a local tournament which involved no fewer than 13 teams was held.

Meanwhile, the administrators of the game made great strides at regional meetings to get an adjustment to the Caribbean Netball Association constitution. The previous reference to ‘country’ was amended to read: “country, island or state”. This meant that Nevis could participate in regional tournaments as a single entity. However, whenever Nevis’s turn came to host the Caribbean Netball Tournament, they always had to refuse due to the lack of proper facilities.

That was to change in 1983, however, when Myrna Walwyn as president of the local Association, accompanied by her secretary Jeanette Grell-Hull, accepted the offer to host the Caribbean tournament, pending the provision of appropriate facilities.

The ambitious move paid off. The netball executive successfully lobbied the members of the Nevis Island Assembly, more specifically through Premier Simeon Daniel and then Permanent Secretary to the Premier, Joseph Parry (now Premier of Nevis). The result was a state of the art netball complex funded mainly by money provided by the St Christopher and Nevis Social Security Board. Nevis was able to host the Caribbean Netball Championship in 1985 and placed 4th or 5th defeating Antigua and Montserrat on the way.

Jans played netball for 13 consecutive years, retiring after the 1985 Caribbean tournament on Nevis. For those 13 years she also served on the Nevis netball executive holding virtually all positions except for that of president. However, on retiring from regional netball in 1985, Jans promptly took up the mantle of president of the local association, a position she held from 1986 to 2006 with a brief four-year break to deal with her business.

During that break, the government of the day made a special request of her to return to revive the sport on the island. A challenge she willingly accepted.

In 2004, Jans worked overtime to ensure that Nevis hosted yet another Caribbean Championships. She even led out with the painting of the Netball Complex, ably assisted by local sports enthusiasts ‘Ranking’ and ‘Cauli-weed’. She recalls on many occasions, leaving the Complex, in the early hours of the morning.

Jans would encourage any female to get involved with netball. “It provides an avenue for exercise and fitness. It teaches team work and discipline and will make the individual well-rounded” she stated proudly.

Jans is not satisfied with the present state of netball on the island, or with the condition of the Netball Complex.

“I will be back,” she declared ominously.