Deb­bie Ann Fran­cois has been re­turned un­op­posed as pres­i­dent of the Lystra Lewis Port-of-Spain Net­ball League (LL­POSNL) for a 19th term.

“I feel ho­n­oured and ap­pre­ci­at­ed; I don’t take it for grant­ed,” said Fran­cois. “Every elec­tion, I don’t go think­ing I would win, but I think the work that I do speaks vol­umes. So peo­ple have con­fi­dence that I can lead them and take them for an­oth­er term again. We will see how it goes af­ter this term, but I re­al­ly ap­pre­ci­ate them hav­ing con­fi­dence in me.”

The LL­POSNL held its an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing and elec­tion of of­fi­cers on Jan­u­ary 29 at SWW­TU Hall on Wright­son Road in Port-of-Spain. Elec­tions have been held every year since 2000 and changed to a three-year term in 2019.

Fran­cois has served as pres­i­dent from 2001 to the present but did not serve for two years—2005 and 2015—as she did not go up for of­fice. Now she is back for an­oth­er term, aim­ing to grow the longest-ex­ist­ing net­ball league in the coun­try.

“Last year, I would have told them we don’t know where the fi­nances are com­ing from, but we are go­ing to play in­doors know­ing that it was go­ing to be a cost of over $40,000 just for us to play in­doors for the pe­ri­od we played. They had the con­fi­dence in me that, okay, that is what we’re go­ing to do, and we were able to pull it off. Even with our con­tin­u­ous dri­ve last year in terms of the open­ing, we did so many things for the kids free,” said Fran­cois, proud­ly af­ter hav­ing host­ed last sea­son’s com­pe­ti­tion at the Wood­brook Youth Fa­cil­i­ty. For the pre­vi­ous years, the league was played on the four out­door courts at the Jean Pierre Com­plex in Mu­cu­rapo.

“So I think my work speaks vol­umes for me, my char­ac­ter, and my in­tegri­ty; those are the things they have watched over the years and see fit to have me run for of­fice.”

For the 2025-2028 term, Fran­cois will have the ser­vices of the same staff of the pre­vi­ous pe­ri­od (2022-2024) as they were all re-elect­ed un­op­posed ex­cept for one po­si­tion, the pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer (PRO).

Liselle John­son-Mar­celle and Saman­tha Greene con­test­ed the PRO po­si­tion. John­son-Mar­celle won by 22 votes to 12.

Re­turn­ing al­so are Veron­i­ca Mc­Don­ald-Nicoll as first vice pres­i­dent, Althea Mc­Collin as sec­ond vice pres­i­dent, Keisha Alexan­der as sec­re­tary, Lystra Solomon-Sim­mons as as­sis­tant sec­re­tary, and In­dra An­der­son as trea­sur­er.

The com­mit­tee mem­bers in­clude Adan­na Jobe, De­lano Hen­ry, He­s­ton Mc­Collin, Ali­cia Gue­vara, Leslie Ann Aguil­le­ria, and Keisha St. Hillar­ie. Greene and Anne-Marie Dick­son-Lewis are the trustees.

Look­ing ahead to the 86th edi­tion of the LL­POSNL, Fran­cois and her team re­main com­mit­ted to the growth of the sport, the em­pow­er­ment of play­ers, and the de­vel­op­ment of our net­ball com­mu­ni­ty.

“In 2025, we plan to in­crease our cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship and re­new our part­ner­ship with JMMB, Kra­dius, and the Min­istry of Sports. We plan to con­tin­ue with our Queen and Cul­tur­al Pageant to be held in June,” said Fran­cois.

“We are al­so plan­ning two work­shops, one on men­tal health and one on lead­er­ship, both to be fa­cil­i­tat­ed by pro­fes­sion­als in the field. Rein­tro­duc­tion of an um­pires pool to as­sist with the qual­i­ty of um­pir­ing. Plans for an open­ing with a dif­fer­ence to en­sure that the kids en­joy them­selves.”

The league is card­ed to open on March 23.

LL­POSNL ex­ec­u­tive

Pres­i­dent: Deb­bie Ann Fran­cois

First vice pres­i­dent: Veron­i­ca Mc­Don­ald-Nicoll

Sec­ond vice pres­i­dent: Althea Mc­Collin

Sec­re­tary: Keisha Alexan­der

As­sis­tant sec­re­tary: Lystra Solomon-Sim­mons

Trea­sur­er: In­dra An­der­son

Pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer: Liselle John­son-Mar­celle

Six com­mit­tee mem­bers: Adan­na Jobe, De­lano Hen­ry, He­s­ton Mc­Collin, Ali­cia Gue­vara, Leslie Ann Aguil­le­ria, Keisha St.Hillar­ie

Trustees: Anne-Marie Dick­son-Lewis, Saman­tha Greene