Barrackpore Senior retain Petrotrin v-ball crown

Barrackpore Senior Comprehensive maintained their superiority over arch-rivals Hillview College and notched their 14th consecutive Petrotrin Secondary Schools Under-20 title at the Central Regional Indoor Sports Arena (CRISA), Chaguanas on Thursday. The tassa drummers and over 100-strong supporters, including six teachers, from Barrackpore silenced the drums of Hillview College supporters when skipper Ryan Deonath and his boys won in impressive fashion after both teams had shared one set each.

Tension mounted as Deonath and his boys clinched the hard-fought evenly contested first set 25-23. Urged on by their band of vociferous supporters and drummers creating a crescendo during each point in the second set, Hillview bounced back and levelled the scores through the determined efforts of Colwyn Babb and Kurtis Phillips. Coach Dilip Akaloo saw his team winning the set 10-25. However, national women’s team trainer Nado Deonath, who has been the Barrackpore coach for their title winning years, got her team to play more cohesively and thwart the efforts of their opponents.

Spurred by the brilliance of national youth player Deonath and coupled with excellent work by libero Ajesh Kissoon and attackers Kevin Nimrod, Anthony Diljohn and Leon Roopchand, they pulled out all stops and retained the Petrotrin Trophy by clinching the third and decisive set 15-10. There was much jubilation at securing  the national title for 14 successive years. This was their sternest test and they prevailed and made their manager Ruth Partap (teacher) and school principal Harold Ramgoolam very proud.

St Joseph’s Convent (Port-of-Spain) also successfully retained their national Girls Under-20 crown. They stopped South Zone champions Naparima Girls’ High in the final also on Thursday at Chaguanas and made it six-in-a-row for coach Saleem Ali. Spurred by the brilliance of 14-year-old Darlene Ramdin, 13-year-old Kerville Redhead, Taila DeSouza, Karen Moses, Carlylle Leach and national stars KellyAnn Billingy (captain), Aisha Sealy (setter), St Joseph’s proved their worth and won comfortably at 25-11, 25-15. Holy Name Convent (Port-of-Spain) retained their national Under-16 and Under-14 titles when they turned back the stout challenge of North Zone archrivals St Joseph’s Convent (PoS) in both finals. They took the Under-16 crown with a 26-24, 26-24 victory while the Under-14 went to three sets before they prevailed.