I feel I must apologise, writing positive blogs hasn’t been very forthcoming of late & I’ve been using the excuse (to myself at least) that there’s nothing much positive in netball to write about. I’ve been a bit short of inspiration!
What a lie that is though! There is phenomenal inspiration right on my doorstep. Given it’s the season of goodwill and frankly, after the year we’ve had, there can never be enough kindness & netball love!
So, behold my list of inspirational, local, netball stalwarts, who don’t just have an impact on me but do so much for the local netball community!
💜 Angie Osborne
Yes, let’s start with the blindingly obvious! You can accuse me of nepotism, she is my mother after all.
Few facts about the mother dearest that you may not know! She started her netball career at Centre 😂 She has been volunteering in netball for a MEGA 47 years 👵🏼.
If she didn’t do what she does, Meon Netball Club, one of the oldest clubs in Hampshire, would have folded years ago!
I could go on about the impact she’s had outside the club for local leagues, county netball, umpires, youngsters, walking netball - the list is endless. I don’t have enough superlatives though and if I kept going I really would be accused of nepotism! (Like I haven’t already! 😉🤷🏽♀️)
The highest compliment I can pay her really is that her impact is immeasurable. We need more Angie Osborne’s in the netball world!
💜 Judy Yoxall
I’ve only known Judy around 8/9 years but her involvement in netball extends well beyond that. She ‘retired’ to Portsmouth a few years ago and the local netball community should be extremely pleased she did!
However if she ‘retired’ to our fab city, goodness knows what she did in netball before hand!
Her involvement has no bounds, from grass roots to performance pathway, walking netball, back to netball and everything in between - coaching, umpiring, mentoring, administrating. You name a role in netball and I would bet money Judy has done it!
Her enthusiasm and passion for our great sport is completely contagious.
What impresses me so much about Judy is that even at her age (I know, but I’m not telling!) she still wants to learn and keep fresh. It’s really admirable. She will do anything for anyone and has a heart that’s just full of netball giving!
💜 Kimmi Grainger & Karen Rock
You can’t really name one without the other. They are Meon Netball Club, and once upon a time, East Hampshire Netball Association, legends.
Their impact is sizeable in local netball but in very different ways.
Kimmi, in my opinion, was a Coach using practices and strategies well ahead of her time. Before ‘Player-centred’ was first coined, she took time to get to know her players, whatever age or ability, found out what motivated them & used that to get the very best out of them. Tactically she saw things, that even now, nearly 20 years after she finished coaching me, I still can’t see!
I would go as far to say that every single one of her players played their best netball under her. I certainly did.
Karen, her bestie, was and still is at the other end of the spectrum. A huge support off of the netball court through umpiring and administration. During my first years at Meon there was not a penny out of place in the club accounts: she ruled with an iron rod!
Her commitment to netball is just unprecedented. Hours and hours of volunteering and no doubt, countless sacrifices, made to support netball. Again the impact is immeasurable. She is one of a kind.
💜 Sheonah Forbes
I came across Sheonah as a junior player and indeed, coached her as an U18 County player. What a long time ago that was ! I do remember what an incredible team player she was on and off the court. She was super supportive of her team mates, incredibly fair and as Captain of her County side a remarkable communicator between player and Coach.
We’ve always keep in contact but I next had dealings with her when I first gained my role at England Netball. Sheonah was actually the first Netball Development Community Coach, employed, a very impressive appointment. Sheonah was a trailblazer & a huge source of encouragement and inspiration to her fellow colleagues. It was a sad day when she left the role.
These days Sheonah can be found at the other end of the netball spectrum, coaching & looking after the future England Roses as Head Coach of the Academy programme.
I could not be more proud - not only of the dizzy heights she has scaled but because she has never lost that sense of fairness, trailblazing or enthusiasm. I am sure there are times when they’ve wavered, no path to the top is straightforward, but her resilience, perseverance and decision to stay grounded has definitely stood her in very good stead.
She’s the Gosport girl whose done very good! There will be more to come, of that I am certain.
💜 Joan Horton
Joan is unfortunately no longer operating in netball circles and netball is certainly poorer for it, in my opinion.
She had the most profound effect on me in my formative netball years. As a very young player with no junior teams around during that time, she used to let me join in with senior training and was so encouraging, despite me being more of a hindrance than a help!
I will always remember Joan’s dignity in the face of adversity and her unflappable nature when all those were panicking around her! She had an all knowing wisdom which served so many, so well, off the court.
Although her netball commitments have been cut and I hear she is more into amateur dramatics these days (she’d have seen a lot of that on various netball committees over the years! 😉), her netball legacy lives on in those of us she coached and taught and in her procedures and admin work that we still work with today. Clubs, leagues, committees and even our National Governing Body are better off for her work and will continue to be, in many years to come.
Joan, if you’re reading, get back into netball, we need you! 😘
💜 Julie Parkinson
Well I started with a family member so I might as well finish with one! It will give those ‘gossip-mongers’ and ‘keyboard warriors’ something to do for a few hours! 🙄
My little sis definitely got the ‘better player’ title out of the two of us and that’s fine, because I’ve always told everyone that I’m the better Coach!
It’s not true though and you only have to glance at her achievements with Jelly Netball - a club she started herself and continues to more or less run, singlehandedly, to see why!
It’s not just about the success of the Jelly Netball teams, which is unsurpassed in local junior netball, or even the youngsters Julie has coached who have gone on to better things in netball.
At the very heart of it is giving young players the very best first experience so they fall in love with our great game and never leave!
It’s about more than just netball, it’s about all that surrounds it - the education, the opportunities, the confidence and independence. Julie isn’t just a netball coach, she is a role model, a teacher, a leader and an inspiration.
That impact is hard to measure but the vast number of players who keep in contact years after they go to Uni - or even end up being Julie’s team mate later on, gives you a very good indicator of how well regarded she is by her players. There is no better compliment than that.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the Netball heroes and volunteers out there. There’s never a better time than now, to share your netball heroes and make sure they know they are appreciated!
