Lindo’s Tigers coach Anthony Mouchette has hailed his players for winning the Bermuda Netball Association Winter League after remaining unbeaten.

Mouchette led his team to their maiden championship on Saturday with a 39-30 victory over Storm, ending years of dominance by Phoenix Heat who had dominated the Bermuda netball landscape for more than a decade.

“I’m so happy for the girls because this has been a long time coming for them,” Mouchette said.

“Nobody in the team had ever won a championship before, so it’s nice to see us win it together. It was a great team effort that won us the title, it was a challenging game but we came out on top.

“Hats off to Storm because they brought the game to us and made our girls play some great netball.

“I’ve always told my girls that we are a very good team, and we have a few national squad players in our side. I just wanted them to execute and show that they can play netball.”

Mouchette, who was inspired by Tony the Tiger Frosted Flakes commercial to form the team more than a decade ago, outlined his strategy to outwit counterpart Kimale Evans in the title decider.

“We had a good game plan for the match against Storm,’’ he said.

“We knew they were going to come at us on the attack side, but we did a lot of defensive work as part of preparations and it was nice to see it all being executed on the court.

“I don’t want my team to rely on the defence to win it for us, but I also want my attacking players to learn how to defend. We did a lot of drills with the attackers defending as well, so that they can contribute to the defence.”

With Trott twins Jahtuere and Jahkenya displaying their remarkable shooting skills, goal keeper Demiqua Daniels and goal defence Khianda Pearman-Watson had to be at their best on the other end.

Daniels and Pearman were tasked with ensuring Nabiilah Nasir, the league’s top goal scorer, and Zakiya Durham did not inflict too much damage on their way to sharing the MVP accolade for Tigers.

Pearman-Watson, who played with a heavily strapped knee, was delighted to win the league with Tigers on her return to the island.

“It’s nice to finally win the league, not just for us but for our coach who’s been with us since the very beginning,” the 30-year-old said.

“I’ve been playing with this team since I was 16 and we had finished second consistently over the years. I can finally breathe because we’ve all been anxious about the final match against Storm.

“It was a hard game, both teams played really well but we wanted it more. The Storm attackers were a lot fit and quicker than us, but I played a smarter game of netball and that worked for me.

“I was in the UK for four years and played for Manchester Flava in the Evening Netball League. I worked my way up from the third team to the first team, so when I came back to Bermuda in November last year, I was playing in the first team.”

Daniels, a former Heat youth player, was delighted to play a huge role in the team’s success.

“This season we really gelled together, we communicated a lot more and stuck to our goals,” she said.

“We had some tough games during the season with matches against Storm being the toughest. Since we only won by two points the first time we played them, we knew we had to bring all we had to bring everything we had to this one.

“Their attacking players do move a lot, but we've been playing with each other for years so I knew how to defend against them.”