The University of T&T (UTT) will again look to dominate when the 27th edition of the Courts All Sectors Netball League (ASNL) begins tomorrow at the Eastern Regional Indoor Sports Arena in Tacarigua.
The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 3 pm with the traditional parade of teams, with the Fire Service band providing the music for the march past.
Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Darryl Smith and the president of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) Brian Lewis have been invited to take the salute to start the league, which will see 22 teams participate this season.
In the Premiership Division, UTT will try to hold off the challenges of Fire, Police, and the University of the West Indies (UWI), in hope of retaining all five titles which they won last season including the league, the Steve Sarjeant Challenge, the Knockout, Fast5 and the Opening Day Knockout competition.
In the Courts Knockout, an Open category, UTT picked up the top prize along with the march past trophy.
Key to UTT’s success last season, was centre-court player Candice Guerero, who emerged the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the league
UTT’s lower division team also had a number of successes, walking away with the Jean Pierre Challenge trophy which was contested by teams in the Championship Division and the Fast5 crown.
For this season, seven other teams will compete in the Championship group. They are Bermudez United, Defence Force, San Juan Jabloteh, Police Service, UTT. They will be joined in competition by two new teams, Las Lomas Academy and UTC (the Unit Trust Corporation), and Telecommunications Services of T&T (TSTT), promoted from the Alternative Division.
Battling in that division will be Defence Force, Fire Service, Police Service, University of the Southern Caribbean (USC), and UWI. The Prisons Service team, which participated in the Alternative Division last year, will not be playing this season.
Bermudez, Carib Senators, Harlem, Les Enfants, and TSTT will meet in the Retro Division.
The league will again feature the Fast5 as another competition in each Division, and the Courts Open Knock Out to which all teams are invited.
Following the march past, spectators will witness the Opening Day Knockout competition in the Premiership, the Championship and the Alternative Divisions.