By Claude Mills, Staff Reporter
Hinds, at 38, shows off his netball skills. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
HE IS a thorn among the roses, but this is one thorn that is as happy as a lark. For the last 20 years Dalton Hinds has been intimately involved in local netball in a variety of roles as umpire, coach and, yes, even as a player. In fact, you probably saw him on television umpiring a game during the Cable & Wireless World Netball Championship July 10 through 20. (He and assistant national coach, Janet Guy, were recently named Internationally Awarded Umpires by the International Federation of Netball Associations, a programme started in 1997 to form an élite group of umpires to monitor the sport.)
That makes Hinds the first male in the Caribbean and Americas to get that title.
A 38-year-old customer service representative at the Inter-Commercial Distributors in the Kingston 5 area, Hinds is a graduate of Holy Trinity Secondary and Dunoon Park Technical high schools in Kingston. He has also done a human resource management course at the Institute of Management and Production (IMP).
He explains that he was bitten by the netball bug in his late teens and pursued the female-dominated sport even at the expense of derision from his male friends.
"There was a perception back then that it was a female game. My male friends used to heckle me, but that was the sport I liked. I used to compete in mixed form competitions; other males would play on the girls teams but I think I had more interest in the sport than they did," he said.
Despite the outpouring of scorn, Hinds and fellow male netballers formed the first male team on October 3, 1982, playing a female team at Up Park Camp in Kingston. "I umpired that match. Subsequent to that, I started playing for my club, the Beagles," he explained.
ACCREDITATIONS
He has been a local accredited umpire since 1988 but only received his international accreditation in 2002. One of the requirements to reach this level of proficiency is a multi-stage beep test which involves doing shuttle runs across two-thirds of the netball court. After that, potential umpires are required to participate in two international matches involving countries ranked in the top 10. Then, and only then, are they conferred with an International Umpires Award.
Today, in addition to his involvement at the international level, Hinds is an executive member of the Male Netball Association of Jamaica (MNAJ), which started in 1995.
These are exciting times for male netball in Jamaica, Hinds told Flair in an interview last week. "Our men hope to compete in the Male and Mixed World Championship in Fiji next August. It would be good to take a set of women to compete in the mixed version with us if the opportunity presents itself. It will cost a lot of money and we're not sure we will be able to secure corporate sponsorship, but we will be trying."
The MNAJ is also seeking affiliation with the Jamaica Netball League . The MNAJ has six teams that compete against each other in an annual competition. A pick-up team from the male league often competes against the national women's team in gruelling practice matches. They did so before the recent World Championship, playing a simple but essential role in getting the female athletes prepared for the competition.
"These males should be given respect. They are tremendous athletes and on any given Sunday when they compete the matches are intense and exciting. They are great athletes," noted Hinds.
HE'S NO PUSHOVER
Laugh as they still sometimes do, playing netball has not made Hinds a pushover. A pair of knife-wielding attackers found this out earlier this year when they tried to rob him. He fought back, receiving an ugly slash across his nose for his troubles - but he kept his wallet and his pride.
"I defended myself... I think I got lucky though... it could have turned out worse," he said, with a shrug of the shoulders.
