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Ince proud of players
– Says thanks to Fernandes, parents
Carl Ince
By Rawle Welch
Head coach of the history making Guyana junior Squash team Carl Ince, in a telephone conversation with Kaieteur Sport yesterday warned that the team would not get away with inadequate preparations as they did this time.
“We would have to prepare much better and earlier than we did this time because the standard around the region has gone up and countries such as Bermuda and Jamaica have shown remarkable improvement,” he said.
Ince said he is extremely proud of all the players, assistant coach, Robert Fernandes, who he felt did an excellent job during the tour and the parents as well.
Guyana became the first country to win the teams and overall titles in consecutive years and according to Ince it was done through a display of grit and determination from every player.
“When we left here, I felt that the Girls were going to be difficult to beat, but the Boys were the ones that I believed did not have enough preparations and exposure to topple some of the other countries,” Ince mentioned.
He added that even when they arrived in Barbados what they saw from the
Robert Fernandes
other top players convinced them further that the Boys will have to play beyond their level to defeat certain teams in order for them to retain the title.
“We knew that we were going to put in the effort to get the desired results and as the tournament wore on I begun to feel a sense of optimism as the Boys gradually started to improve,” Ince recounted.
The veteran coach, who has been at the helm of the national team for quite a few years disclosed that throughout the competition all the matches were hard fought, but the team showed admirable fight and a never-say-die attitude leading right up to the final against the Trinidadians.
“Many felt that the Trinidadians were better and I must admit that on a couple of occasions we were all a bit nervous, but the rest is history.”
He said that he still thinks last year’s team was better prepared and perhaps even better than the one this year, but he is proud of them all.
Giving a brief breakdown of the final, Ince said that when Victoria Arjoon dropped the second game, they got a bit nervous thinking that her opponent was beginning to get back into the match, but she recovered quickly to wrap up the match and give them a 1-0 lead in the rubber.
Ashley Khalil’s straight sets win against one of Trinidad and Tobago’s best hopeful then gave us renewed inspiration, before the opposition drew level after Kayla and Keisha Jeffrey lost their encounters.
Ince, however, intimated that even before she took the court, he could tell that Akeila Wiltshire would have won her clash and she duly did to hand Guyana the Girls crown.
He pointed to Alex Arjoon’s win in the Boys Team final as a surprise result since up to that juncture he was not performing at the level they knew he could.
“I told him that the match was an opportunity for him to finish in style and the way he moved on the court told me everything, he completely dominated his opponent to win in straight sets,” Ince recalled.
He mentioned that he told Raphael DeGroot how important his engagement was and even when he relinquished his two-set advantage, Ince indicated that at no time did his confidence diminish. “I just knew that he would still pull it off.”
Meanwhile, Fernandes in his comments echoed the sentiments expressed by Ince, adding that at crunch time some of the players who weren’t expected to deliver did so.
“All of them played with a lot of heart, especially Deje Dias, Raphael DeGroot and Alex Arjoon, who to me did not have an outstanding tournament by his usual standards, but rose to the occasion when it mattered,” Fernandes stated.
He revealed that there was always someone waiting to step up and get it done and with the knowledge that the Boys were not as strong as previous years, it really made everyone stick together to get the best results.
The next tournament is the Senior Caribbean Championships slated for the Cayman Islands.
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