Netball West Midlands

The Netball Development Trust (NDT) returned in August from an extremely successful trip to Uganda where they taught over 350 children the basic rules and skills of Netball. Midlands volunteer Marie Heathcock was part of the volunteer team, here she tells her story:

‘I am really passionate about netball and this Summer I was very privileged to be asked by England netball to go to Uganda as a volunteer with the Tag Rugby Development Trust, to set up a pilot Netball Development Trust in Uganda. I first discovered a love for playing netball at my primary school encouraged by an enthusiastic teacher. At Secondary school I continued to play in the netball team and also managed to volunteer for over 250 hours as part of ‘Step into Sport’. Through a combination of netball and volunteering I became an England netball coach scholar and was also awarded a Beckwith Coaching Scholarship. I continued volunteering, playing and coaching netball and I went to the Young Leaders Camp for the UK’s top coaches/volunteers; where this year I will be one of the volunteer leader staff!!! Last year I completed my Netball Level 2 Coaching Certificate.

Netball and volunteering gave me the unique opportunity to go to Uganda in June. It was AMAZING! We taught netball to hundreds of students in Mbale across two local schools; on the first day we had over 300 enthusiastic children to coach and it was back to basics where we painted the court lines by hand and dug holes for the posts! The children did not understand footwork and positions (They even had a handmade bib with WS embroidered on it!) Monica, Symone and myself from the UK and three local international Ugandan U21 netball players, Flavia, Liz and Ann, all helped to coach the children who quickly learned to play at a high level. On the final day they played in a tournament where the atmosphere was buzzing to say the least! The smiles on all of the children’s faces, from the players to the whole of the school’s teachers and over 4000 children watching, gave a massive excitement and buzz around netball!!!

The children were fantastic!!! Whenever they did any mistake we would explain and then they would have a beaming smile, ready to try and improve, and when they did correctly sort a skill out, the look on their faces of ‘thank you I’ve learnt something and done it correctly’, reminded you of the real reason for going out there, to help the children learn and thoroughly enjoy the spirit of Netball’.

If anyone would be willing to sponsor Marie or the Netball Development Trust please contact Marie Heathcock at v1k89@students.keele.ac.uk