A life in netball

After Yvonne’s mother sadly passed away last year, the Netball Family wrapped its arms around her and helped her get back on her feet. The former police officer now works as an England Netball Community Coach in central London, and she has seen first-hand how grassroots netball can inspire, empower and bring communities closer together. She talks to 5th QTR about her incredible journey and a lifelong love of the game.

How did you get into netball?

I started playing netball when I was seven, and I’m in my sixth decade now. My mum came over to this country as part of the Windrush Generation, and she realised that netball could be a way for me to interact with other children. At that time, in the 1960s, I was one of only two Black children in my entire primary school. Getting into netball helped me to make friends, but it also helped my mum to connect with other mothers. Netball has been a vehicle for communication and connection ever since I was a child.

I always remember being so excited to be part of a team. That’s what I really loved about it. We were all together, we were having fun, we weren’t bothered about winning or losing, what mattered to us was being part of something. That was so important at a time when it was very easy for me to be seen as ‘other than’.

Has netball always been a part of your life?

Netball was, is, and always will be my first love. I completely fell in love with it from a young age. I played for teams all throughout school, right through up to sixth form. I loved PE anyway, but I wanted to keep hold of that special feeling of being part of a team.

After school, I became a police officer and netball remained a huge part of my life throughout my 30 years of service. I was a player, an umpire and a coach. When I joined, women, and especially Black women, were a very small minority in the police service so, much like at school, netball was a way for me to find vital connections. It helped me forge friendships that have carried on throughout my life. Sometimes I’m shocked by how long I have known some of these women. Playing outside of work was also so important, it helped me to decompress from an often stressful job and find solace in my netball family.

What was it like playing netball as a police officer?

There was a lot of encouragement to play sport and to be fit and active because it’s a physically demanding job. It wasn’t uncommon for me to finish a night-shift, get home at 6am or 7am, have a bit of breakfast and then head back to the netball courts for a 10am game.

It was really valuable for me to have netball in my life, from a career perspective, because it helped me to understand the different dynamics that work within any kind of team – how to pull together for the same aims, and how to understand and work to my strengths and weaknesses. I was working in an environment that was dominated by men, so as a Black woman I always knew that I needed to stand up and stand out so I could be judged on what I did, rather than what I looked like. Netball helped me to achieve this.

What do you love about being a community coach?

A few years after retiring from the police service I got to the point where I was wondering - what’s my next step? You can feel a little cut adrift when you’ve been in an institution for so long. An opportunity arose to work with England Netball and I jumped at it. It was the best thing I ever did. This is the second career that I always wanted, it gives me purpose. I love the development side of my role, meeting women and girls and getting them as excited as I am about our game.

People often talk about the power of sport, but the power of netball is really something quite special. This isn’t a game that’s a derivative of a male game, it is proudly female-dominated. I believe netball is a space for all, whether you’re an elite player, or coming back to the game after a long time, you can’t replicate that sense of sisterhood and togetherness.

I love working with the women I meet through netball. Just getting them over that first bit of anxiety, their worries about – am I going to be good enough? Can I remember the rules? Am I fit enough? – I help them navigate through those fears and come out the other side. Women these days often have to be everything to everyone. They are wives and partners, mothers, daughters, sisters, and everything else, and just ‘being me’ can get forgotten in all of that. I want to provide an environment where you just get to focus on being you for an hour.

I also love seeing women running around and being competitive, which I think is something that is still discouraged for many women. But at netball, you can be competitive, you can want to win, and that’s OK. Then we all get to socialise and relax afterwards and have a laugh about it. That’s what I hope I provide in the sessions I coach.

How has netball helped you through hard times?

I lost my mum about six months ago. And the loss has made me reflect back on those early days when she was a young mum and she found netball for me, and for both of us, to connect with others. I think I have taken those lessons with me through my life – recognising when someone feels as though they are out on the margins. This is why I am always so passionate about wanting to connect with women from lots of different communities.

I have worked with women from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, women who live in refuges and have escaped domestic and sexual violence, women who have had drug and alcohol addiction. I have seen the difference it makes.

For myself, in the last few months since my mum’s passing, the Netball Family really wrapped its arms around me and I will be forever grateful for that. There were women who I meet once a week for an hour, but when they heard about my mum they were immediately messaging me with so much support and love and patience and kindness. That’s what I love so much about the Netball Family.

In this difficult time of grief, netball has helped me back on the road to being who I am and who I was before the loss. And I think my mum would be really happy about that.