SUSAN Douglas and Shanice Beckford of the Queen’s School were named Most Valuable Players (MVPs) of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), Digicel All-Island Netball Championships at an awards ceremony held at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel yesterday. Beckford, who plays goal-attack for the young Sunshine Girls, walked away with the award for the Senior Division along with the Most Accurate Shooter for the senior urban area division with a 90 per cent accuracy.

The persistent 18-year-old student told the Jamaica Observer after she was honoured that she is delighted to have won the award as her hard work finally paid off.

“I put in a lot of work, because I normally stay back after training and work on my shooting. In addition to that, I was at national training for the series in England so it is a lot of practice, and when I think I am not good enough, I just practise some more,” she said.

The final-year student, who also represents semi-pro league team Waulgrovians, said she is planning on moving to university while preparing for the Commonwealth Games in July.

Douglas, who copped the MVP award for the Junior Division, said she hadn’t expected to win the prestigious award.

“I am feeling very happy, but surprised. I wasn’t expecting to win because normally this award would be given to a more attacking player, so I wasn’t expecting it,” said the 16-y-o defender.

Simone Gordon of Queen’s also won two awards — Most Accurate shooter (90 per cent) for urban area juniors and MVP in the same division. Mayah Manning of Denbigh won the rural area junior with 92 per cent, while Tracy-Ann Francis of Holmwood Technical won the rural area senior with 95 per cent.

Captain and goal-shooter for Queen’s, Khadijah Williams, won the MVP for the urban area seniors and Nicole Dixon of Holmwood Technical won the rural award. Kelly Scott of Denbigh won the award for the rural juniors.

The Queen’s were officially crowned winners of the urban area junior and senior championships along with the all-island junior and senior divisions.

Tarrant High were awarded for finishing second in the urban area junior competition, with Norman Manley in third. St Hugh’s High and St Andrew High were second and third, respectively, in the senior section. There was also a special third-place award given to Holy Childhood High.

Denbigh High won the rural area juniors ahead of Knox College and Manchester High, while Holmwood Technical took the seniors ahead of Denbigh and Manchester.

Denbigh High and Holmwood Technical were runners-up to Queen’s in the all-island junior and senior divisions, respectively.