Jane Newton, wales netball u17
year 11
The story so far...
I began to play netball in my
last year of primary school.
At this point I didn't really
think much of it because on
the whole, I enjoyed most
sports. Its only when I came
to Corpus Christi I realised how
much I did enjoy it. In Year 7
I trialled for the school netball
team, got in, and that was
where it all began. I didn't really know what position I played I just sort of filled in anywhere (mostly attack) but somehow, Mrs Hughes realised I was a defender, and from then on I played GD (goal defence).
I played numerous matches for school here on in and my love for the sport continued to grow. In Year 8 I faced my biggest challenge yet- Cardiff and The Vale County trials. I was lucky enough to be picked to go to the trials, but unfortunately I didn't get a place on the squad. I was really disheartened and I remember being upset but looking back now I can see it was all for the best. Not getting in made me want to try harder next time, and then in year 9, I finally got a place on the squad.
During my time on the County team, I played many away matches. I remember a match at Millfield particularly well. This match was a massive turning point for me as I had been scouted and chosen to be a part of Cardiff's development hub for potential welsh players. I was over the moon with this and it was definately a key factor in my story so far.
I continued to play netball for hub, county and the school, but a huge part of my netball development was definately down to my club, CTK. CTK has played a huge role in my netball achievements and I am proud to be a part of the club. I joined CTK in Year 8 and have been a part of it since and hope to stay a part of it for years to come. In the U15's national clubs CTK surprisingly came first, hence being the underdogs of the tournament, and one of my favourite memories came from this tournament, as being picked as Player of the Tournament. The following year CTK also won the U17 National Clubs which was another great experience. I first started playing in the starter league for CTK, but I am now playing in Cardiff Leagues Division 1 with the A squad. The girls on this squad are great players and amazing to play with. Playing with them is good fun and is probably one of my favourite netballing past-times but they also play a huge role in my development as a player. I don't think I would be where I am today with CTK.
One of the toughest times so far was trialling for a place on the U15 Welsh Netball Squad. I tried my hardest, got to the second round of trials but did not make the team. Again, I was very disheartened, gutted even, but despite this I continued to play and train for a better go next time.
My hard work paid off and I was selected into the U17 Welsh Netball Squad and Junior Dragons Squad in September 2013. The training was a lot, I was currently training on a Tuesday evening for CTK, a Thursday evening for County followed by a match for CTK. Some Saturdays I had Hub or County matches and then on top of this I had whole training weekends for Wales and many matches on the weekends for Wales as well (not including tournaments!). The training weekends were long, for example I had a match on the Friday, stayed over in a hostel for two nights and trained for long hours on the Saturday and Sunday i.e. 9am-5pm. I didn't really mind this (other than being shattered), I have made a great group of friends who I would have never had known otherwise and all in all the weekends and matches were fun- occasionally a few tears but you have to learn what it's like to lose (not just at games!). Obviously netball did kind of take over my social life and sometimes school work and so yes, I missed out. But I could not imagine what I would be like without it, so this was the sacrifice I made. Since then, I have played tough matches against many English teams in a league called the Netball Performance League. However, this league was just a build up to one of my greatest netball moments yet, Netball Europe.
Netball Europe was one of my most amazing experiences yet. In this tournament we played Scotland, Northern Ireland and... England. We had a very close game with Scotland, losing by a narrow gap of just 2 points, we were devastated. Our next game, against Northern Ireland, we won by 13 goals. We were chuffed to bits! The game between Northern Ireland and Scotland was a vital game now, and just by luck, Northern Ireland beat Scotland by just 2 points. This was great news for us, we were now back in the game with a chance of winning a medal, there are only two medals up for grabs in this tournament. It was now all down to our goal difference against England, who had previously smashed Ireland with an impressive score of 99 goals to just 17 and had a great victory against Scotland beating them by 65 goals. so, our challenge was to have a smaller goal difference between us and England...
The game was tough, everybody worked extremely hard and fought for every ball, despite being on average a foot shorter than most of the England players. We managed to keep the goal difference under 65. We had done it! Silver medal to Wales! I am more than proud to have stepped on court and represented my country, thus gaining my first Caps. It was an experience I will never forget.
Currently I am playing for the U17 Cardiff and Vale A squad, school team, hub and CTK A team. The season for the Welsh U17 has finished. At the beginning I was playing GD/GK but over the last couple of years my height has not been on my side and it really was a problem and a disadvantage, so now I am playing Wing Defence and learning to play Centre as my second position as they are more suitable for my height.
I plan on staying involved with netball and hopefully making the U19 welsh squad this upcoming season, I have a lot of work to do yet a lot to look forward to in the future.
Jane Newton, Year 11
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