Whenever Caitlin Bassett farewells elite netball she will be wearing the same size 12 shoes from her childhood that symbolise something far bigger still. That is, the moment when an awkward girl for whom netball was a sanctuary from the rude stares and too-loud whispers smiled down at her large feet and believed she truly belonged.
Standing at more than 183cm when she was still at primary school, Bassett endured so many soul-destroying experiences as a young teenager that she wished for an invisibility cloak to cover her slouching shoulders. Instead, clothes shopping expeditions with her mum simply to buy a pair of jeans were so traumatic that they often ended in tears.
“Even when I was playing netball I wore boys’ shoes for such a long time, and I remember when Asics first brought out a netball shoe in a size 12,’’ recalls Bassett, the decorated Diamonds’ captain and veteran of 100 Tests. “I’ve still got one of those pairs and that’s going to be the last pair of netball shoes I ever play in.
“It was such a significant moment for me, because I felt like I fit(ted) in. I felt so much more confident just looking down at my own feet and seeing a pair of shoes that were white and had a bit of pink on them, instead of blue and black for once, was a massive thing for me. It sounds really stupid, but it was huge.’’
Even now, finding clothes that fit and flatter her lanky 196cm frame can greatly affect Bassett’s mood. “It actually makes a massive difference in the way that you walk and talk and interact with other people, and for me most of my experiences with people outside of my family were really confronting when I was younger.
“Strangers would come up to me and the first thing they would say wouldn’t be ‘hi, how’s it going? Or my name’s so-and-so’. It would be ‘wow you’re tall. How tall are you?' Or 'do you play basketball?'.
“And I didn’t really know how to respond, so I just kind of would try and not be noticed by people. I used to catch the train to school every day, which was horrible, because I was just surrounded by strangers who obviously stared at me and stared at the way I looked, and it was not an enjoyable time for me at all.’’
If Bassett wished she was overweight, instead, for kilograms are possible to lose, then what she was happy to gain was a “netball family”, that complimented the full house of netball “nerds” in her own.
With her sport came friends, a sense of community, and a role to play as the target under the post, self-esteem. It all started when the girl who was more into horse-riding than ball games was inevitably noticed by a primary school sports teacher, invited to join his team, and supported and encouraged as she learned.
“Netball was great for me, because it just gave me 12 friends to hang out with, to start off with, and that passion that I had for the sport continued from there, but even if you’re not playing at the elite level, it’s being around other females and having that companionship,’’ says Bassett.
“And people wanted me on their team when I was young because I was tall and they could get the ball to me and I could shoot lots of goals and things like that, and that made me feel special and it made me feel like I fit(ted) in somewhere.
“Two of my best friends, still, I met through netball, and they’re my height, pretty much, they were both shooters as well, so if someone said something to me or I heard a nasty comment, I had two girls beside me who had my back. It was no longer me against the world; I had two friends that were there to support me and knew exactly what I was going through.’’
Yet if the current Giants Netball star made her national league debut for the Perth Orioles at just 16, and first represented Australia at 20, it was not until 2015, the year she played in her second - winning - Netball World Cup, that Bassett was truly comfortable walking tall.
While she still grapples with her body image (and lack of glamourous shoe options) at times, a combination of her individual success as the Liz Ellis Diamond winner, team achievements and the close bonds developed with those around her, helped the native West Australian realise how fortunate she was, and how helpful her height had been.
“I probably wouldn’t have been picked up when I was young if I looked like everyone else,’’ she admits. “I probably was no good, but people put in effort and hard work to me because they saw the potential and that potential came through my one legs and long arms.’’
Thus, 2015 was when she began her involvement in cyber safety and anti-bullying programs, and started to spread the word. Social media posts included “Don’t Be Normal. I’m not, are you?”, while a confidence-building schools campaign was called “Standing Tall’. To keep it light, the self-deprecating star would show the class awkward, unflattering photos of her as a student slouching in the back row with the boys, then whip out her World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold medals.
“The message that I wanted to get across was that being different was actually really cool, and you could use it to your advantage and get to do things that other people would never be able to do,’’ she says.
“Look, I understand that people are probably always gonna look at me and make comments about my height, and I can’t change that fact, but I can change the way I react to it, and if someone does come up to me and make a comment, or if I do hear people whispering loudly about how huge I am, I kind of just brush it off and think about all the amazing things that I’ve got to do because of my height.
“Lots of people wish to be in my shoes, and while I have struggled with loving my body, it’s done me a pretty good service so far.’’
The still camera-shy Bassett laughs that embarrassment led her to hide in baggy masculine clothes, and recalls the awful memory of her mother forcing 12 or 13-year-old Caitlin to wear a dress. No. Anything but that. Tears. Again.
“So that’s the kind of transformation that’s happened, and why I think it’s so funny now that I stand out on court in front of thousands of people wearing a short dress,’’ she quips.
“Now I have thousands of people staring at me all the time.
"But I know that with netball I’m not alone. I run out on court by myself sometimes when they call out the starting goal shooter, but I know I’ve got people following me, I’ve got all those other people around me - and even just connecting with other people who have different bodies was great through netball.
"It actually made me realise that being different is cool, and that we are all different and should be treated differently, as well.’’
So if the day her sports teacher put a netball in her hand proved to be life-changing, then overcoming challenges has developed resilience as well as confidence, while the soon-to-be Bachelor of Communications, has used her platform to be heard and not just seen.
Bassett is happy to not just stand up, but stand out. Head up. Shoulders back.
“It’s weird to think of the person who I would have been if I hadn’t had netball,’’ she reflects. “I was a little bit shy when I was younger and obviously very self-conscious about the way I looked, and if I didn’t have netball to really bring me out of my shell, I wonder what I would be doing, or what type of person I would be.’’
Among the things Bassett knows for sure, though, is this: when retirement day comes, she will lace up those precious decades-old white Asics with the little bit of pink, look down from a great height and celebrate arriving at the place she first felt she belonged.
