GrangeTown
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Grangetown
Netball team
“ I
’ve been involved with the club for 34 years having been the original founder.
I used to use Grangetown Boys Club, as it was, as my youth club. It was a very
well attended centre with great sporting facilities. On leaving school, there weren’t
many sporting opportunities and I really enjoyed playing netball and the competitive side to
it.
So I asked our then leader, if it would be possible to start
our own netball team. He was very supportive of this and the
rest is history and the club has grown from strength to strength
and is probably one of the most positive things to come out of
Grangetown.
The most challenging aspect of my role is encouraging
young girls to participate in what can be a life changing
experience. Many of the youth provisions have been cut
with government cut backs and sadly physical education
is no longer seen as important in young peoples’ timetables
at school. Even though this tackles all of the issues currently
up for debate i.e. anti-social behaviour, teenage pregnancy,
alcohol abuse, obesity etc. Middlesbrough is probably one of
the poorest wards for getting girls into sport and when I see
from the inside what a difference it can make it’s quite sad and
is one of our most challenging roles.
28 Issue 18
The most rewarding aspects are the growth in the club, the
opportunities we offer our members, the level we have got the
club to and being a part of #GrangetownFamily. 2017 was a
great season for us, we were promoted into Premier League
Two, our U14s came in the Top 10 in the country, and our
attendance grew by 30% along with individual achievements
such as England Trials.
We were in a position to take our junior members to six
tournaments, one being a weekend in Pontins. This challenges
our youngsters in all aspects of being an athlete, not just
in gameplay, such as social skills, conducting themselves
professionally on and off the court, eating and hydrating
correctly, overall life time lessons.
Our plan for 2018, is to push further and have both our
U14s and U16s in the top 10 at National Clubs, introduce
other strands to our club such as personalised coaching for the
individuals to offer a more holistic approach to learning and