Each week we bring you a good news story from across the South West as part of our wedNEWSday articles.
The challenge of offering something to everyone in the netball community is a familiar problem. Smaller clubs or those that focus on all abilities often find it difficult to retain their junior players with potential as they seek opportunities to play at regional level. Ultimately, these clubs usually lose their performance players and they end up travelling further afield to join established performance squads in other clubs – not great for the parents/carers nor for the players. The social side of netball is really important so having the opportunity to continue to be part of their local club and yet still have the chance to play netball at a higher level is the best of both worlds.
North Dorset, Weymouth and Dorchester netball clubs made this happen for the U14s of their 3 clubs by combining their performance players to form a regional squad that has been training together since May this year. At the Dorset County U14 regional play offs the team successfully qualified for the South West Region U14, Division 2 league. Experienced coach Karen Peaty from North Dorset Netball Club supported Sam Shewbridge of Dorchester Netball Club whilst she was completing her level 2 coaching qualification and the combined U14 squad now have a newly qualified and super enthusiastic coach to share in their regional journey. The players still play for their respective clubs in local leagues and this venture would not have been possible without the support of their club coaches. A great example of ‘Working as One’ within the Netball Dorset community.
Congratulations also to Poole and Bournemouth U14s for qualifying for the regional seeding tournament and the potential to play in the SW Regional Div 1 leage and also to Dorset All Stars who have successfully qualified for Div 2.
If you have a good news story that you would like to share please send your story and a picture to the South West Regional