Last month, at one of the homes for community netball in Victoria, 110 primary school students were given the opportunity to learn netball alongside some of the sport’s best players.
Origin Diamonds Kiera Austin, Kate Moloney, Sophie Garbin and Jo Weston visited the State Netball Hockey Centre in Parkville to share their skills and experiences with students from St. Michael’s Primary School in North Melbourne.
The clinic was the second delivered by Netball Australia and Netball Victoria with the support of Visit Victoria with the aim to increase netball participation in diverse communities.
Seventy-five per cent of the children who took part in the Parkville clinic spoke English as a second language. Many of the students were learning netball for the first time, while some of the cohort already regularly participated in netball outside of school.
The students learned how to correctly pass to each other among other netball skills. Earlier in November, Origin Diamonds Jo Weston and Kate Moloney facilitated a similar clinic at Shepparton Secondary College with 130 students, many of whom were First Nations. The students were thrilled to have some of the nation’s best netballers travel 200km to run the clinic at their regional school.
Stacey Piper, a Wurundjeri & Dja Dja Wurrung woman began the Parkville clinic with a Welcome to Country before the youngsters were taught the basic rules and skills of netball including how to shoot, pass, dodge and defend.
One participant, Estelle, was excited to learn from shooters Sophie Garbin and Kiera Austin.
“They taught me how to shoot better,” she said.
The students got some shooting pointers from the Origin Diamonds.On hand to assist at the clinic was local coach Gracie from Brunswick Netball Club, one of many local coaches assisting with the clinic.
Gracie was ecstatic to see the children enjoying the sport she loves.
“I enjoyed learning to teach these kids, seeing them happy playing a sport I love and seeing them get straight into it,” she said.
As part of the clinic, major sponsor Visit Victoria donated balls, bibs and cones to help St. Michael’s Primary School continue their journey with netball.
