“It's one of the reasons why I wanted to go into performance. I never wanted to - I was happy at grassroots. And people kept saying, when are you going to do this? When are you going to do that? But what made me do it was I was tired of seeing good players not make it. And I felt like, if I got involved, I could give players a chance - not even players of my own colour. Players who don't play for the top clubs, maybe a player who plays at school, I could give them a chance to be in performance and show they can be in performance. So, I would always give the underdog a try. I'd always push for the underdog if I felt I could make them someone. And I feel that's the real reason why I'm involved in performance: to give more black girls a chance to be involved at a higher level. Because it is stereotyped a little bit that they can't take information in, they can't produce what everyone produces, and I think in the last two years I've shown that they have. I think I've taken at least eight players into my environment, and we're champions two years in a row. A lot of them are now in England. And they wouldn't have given that girl that chance if I didn't take a chance on them, so that drives me a lot. And when I feel I don't want to do it anymore, it reminds me that I can't stop yet. But that's a really good reason to make a difference. For me, as a black woman myself, even in my work, many times I go to a national performance program or a national champions, I'm the only black person. I have to stand tall. I'm proud of myself and I think I can mix in any environment, but sometimes the “isms” do get to you. But I just remind myself what I tell my kids: you're always bigger and you're better. The “ism” is their problem, not yours. So you just stay focused.” #OurStories #NetballStories #HumansOfNetball

“M: I realised that there was a massive community element of netball that I probably didn’t notice before when I was at school, so I have a social media platform and I just randomly posted on my story one day saying ‘Hey guys I think it’d be really cool if we could get like a people of colour and black netball team together’. I made a link to a Google form to see who was interested and I got over a hundred responses. I was like, okay, there’s actually a market for this. People actually want to play. And I feel like netball is not very accessible to black women. I don’t remember playing with many black women during school, so to see that response was kind of shocking. R: I think for me personally, I see Black to Netball more than just us being here on this court every Monday, but actually bringing netball into people’s lives more than just playing the sport. Being able to show people that there are people playing at a really high standard, black women who look just like us, especially the young girls coming through, they literally look just like us. And being able to give people that opportunity to see that and see beyond Black to Netball, they can go and watch it with their friends, they can go watch it on YouTube or on Sky, or on the BBC, they can come here and watch a casual game - there are so many opportunities for netball to be a part of your life. It doesn’t have to just be Black to Netball. O: Growing up, I played netball in school and I was very good at it, but I never saw anyone like me doing it at a super high level. And there were some black women playing, but it wasn’t commonly known. If I look back, had I known, I probably would have been a lot further in my netball career because I would have gone through pathways but I literally stopped playing after school. Having representation matters so much. And I was sceptical, I won’t lie but I said let me see what this is about. This could be something special and it really has been. I love community. I love making an impact. That’s like my mission statement for life: always do something that makes an impact. And this definitely is one of those things.” #OurStories #NetballStories #HumansOfNetball

“Me and her and netball is not a good gel, because I think she thinks I don’t know what I’m talking about. I didn’t make it to her level, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. And she could be right because I think she’s evolved into such a good coach now. I admire her. Our relationship with netball, I try to only be positive with her when it comes to netball because I find that sometimes I can say things and she’ll take it the wrong way. But that’s because I’m her mum. And other people will tell her the same thing and she’ll take it differently from them. So it’s just that mum-daughter relationship. But yeah, the older she gets, the better it’s getting, I should say. I’m proud of her whether she’s playing or whether she’s not playing. She has had it rough. She’s been through some adverse stuff, but to see her on that court. Oh, God, it fills me with pride. I get really emotional, especially when she’s had a good game. Don’t get me wrong, if she’s had a bad game, I’m the first one to tell her you were shit: ‘You were absolutely shocking’. I will be the first one, but nah, she’s made me proud of the young lady she’s become. And her journey in netball hasn’t been easy, because there’s been times when she’s wanted to quit. And I’m talking from back in club, when we were pushing her at under 16 or regional or nationals. And she was like, ‘No, it’s too much mum’, she wanted to quit. But luckily she didn’t because look where she is now. I think people know better than to come near me with their negativity about my child because I am very, very protective about her. You don’t breathe on her without me going absolutely doolally. So I haven’t heard any negativity. And to be fair to her, all her DMs are positive, positive, positive. There’s kids, adults who are DM’ing her and are saying ‘You’ve just given us a new lease on life’, ‘You make me want to go play netball that I never played before, or continue playing netball’. So she’s got a really positive effect on young ladies and other ones.” #OurStories #NetballStories #HumansOfNetball

“Me and her and netball is not a good gel, because I think she thinks I don’t know what I’m talking about. I didn’t make it to her level, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. And she could be right because I think she’s evolved into such a good coach now. I admire her. Our relationship with netball, I try to only be positive with her when it comes to netball because I find that sometimes I can say things and she’ll take it the wrong way. But that’s because I’m her mum. And other people will tell her the same thing and she’ll take it differently from them. So it’s just that mum-daughter relationship. But yeah, the older she gets, the better it’s getting, I should say. I’m proud of her whether she’s playing or whether she’s not playing. She has had it rough. She’s been through some adverse stuff, but to see her on that court. Oh, God, it fills me with pride. I get really emotional, especially when she’s had a good game. Don’t get me wrong, if she’s had a bad game, I’m the first one to tell her you were shit: ‘You were absolutely shocking’. I will be the first one, but nah, she’s made me proud of the young lady she’s become. And her journey in netball hasn’t been easy, because there’s been times when she’s wanted to quit. And I’m talking from back in club, when we were pushing her at under 16 or regional or nationals. And she was like, ‘No, it’s too much mum’, she wanted to quit. But luckily she didn’t because look where she is now. I think people know better than to come near me with their negativity about my child because I am very, very protective about her. You don’t breathe on her without me going absolutely doolally. So I haven’t heard any negativity. And to be fair to her, all her DMs are positive, positive, positive. There’s kids, adults who are DM’ing her and are saying ‘You’ve just given us a new lease on life’, ‘You make me want to go play netball that I never played before, or continue playing netball’. So she’s got a really positive effect on young ladies and other ones.” #OurStories #NetballStories #HumansOfNetball

“In my primary school, before they got the money pumped into it to make it a better school, we had nothing. We had a PE teacher who wasn’t a PE specialist so netball was literally catching, throwing, passing around. So then, when she came in and was offering it as an after-school club, it was quite good stuff. It kept us all out of trouble because we were from quite a rough area as well. My entire club, my year group and that school were a lot of low-income families, split families… so it was good to give us all an outlet and to go somewhere else. It was hard though. When I went to secondary school I was still part of the netball team but then you do see the difference between you and the girls who played for a club. It was really difficult because I did really want to go to a club. And as I got older and became more and more interested in netball and developed more and more of a passion, I really wanted to go to a club. But it was so expensive: just membership fees, even for kids. You had to buy all the kit and all that stuff, season fees and then my mum would have to travel but then she had my sister as well so it made it difficult. And because the girls who were in the club were from well-off families, they didn’t like… we were friends but we weren’t friends enough that they would offer to take me anywhere. So I wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere anyway. So it was quite crappy, especially when after year 11 I went into sixth form and for A-level PE if you wanted to get a good grade, you needed to do it outside of school as well. So at A level, I was capped because I wasn’t accessing a club. My PE teachers used the Pupil Premium fund to get me in a couple of training sessions so I could go get my videos, go get a game. They worked really hard for me to try and fund me to get me through. But it was just the bare minimum. Yeah, there was not much access to it back then. But being a PE teacher now I see so many more opportunities. I see the major difference between private schools and state schools and it’s just worlds apart: what people get offered and what they take through.” #OurStories #NetballStories #HumansOfNetball

“In my primary school, before they got the money pumped into it to make it a better school, we had nothing. We had a PE teacher who wasn’t a PE specialist so netball was literally catching, throwing, passing around. So then, when she came in and was offering it as an after-school club, it was quite good stuff. It kept us all out of trouble because we were from quite a rough area as well. My entire club, my year group and that school were a lot of low-income families, split families… so it was good to give us all an outlet and to go somewhere else. It was hard though. When I went to secondary school I was still part of the netball team but then you do see the difference between you and the girls who played for a club. It was really difficult because I did really want to go to a club. And as I got older and became more and more interested in netball and developed more and more of a passion, I really wanted to go to a club. But it was so expensive: just membership fees, even for kids. You had to buy all the kit and all that stuff, season fees and then my mum would have to travel but then she had my sister as well so it made it difficult. And because the girls who were in the club were from well-off families, they didn’t like… we were friends but we weren’t friends enough that they would offer to take me anywhere. So I wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere anyway. So it was quite crappy, especially when after year 11 I went into sixth form and for A-level PE if you wanted to get a good grade, you needed to do it outside of school as well. So at A level, I was capped because I wasn’t accessing a club. My PE teachers used the Pupil Premium fund to get me in a couple of training sessions so I could go get my videos, go get a game. They worked really hard for me to try and fund me to get me through. But it was just the bare minimum. Yeah, there was not much access to it back then. But being a PE teacher now I see so many more opportunities. I see the major difference between private schools and state schools and it’s just worlds apart: what people get offered and what they take through.” #OurStories #NetballStories #HumansOfNetball

“I want to say as well that the players that I watch who play for Jamaica, the Sunshine Girls, I find them incredibly inspiring and I think the journey that they’re still on, that they’ve been on over the last few years, it’s a privilege to watch, for me. When I think about Shamera Sterling-Humphrey, Latanya Wilson and Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard, they’re just at the top, top, top of their game. What they did at the Commonwealth Games, when they beat Australia, it was 57-55. I remember watching that game and I was like, these girls are fucking rockstars. Like, they are. Literally. Their funding profile is completely different to an Australia or an England. And the way that they’re able to play was just really amazing to watch. And I think it’s an outrage the fact that they were having to put a GoFundMe on because they didn’t have enough money or they needed more money to help with the funding of the team. I just really think they’re so inspiring because if they can do that with the resources that they’ve had, I’m just so excited for what they’re going to do when more of this funding comes in. I would just say you need to invest in them. You need to recognise the talent that you have, and you also need to make sure that you don’t lose the spirit. The risk that potentially comes with more funding and more exposure and more infrastructure and all of those things, it’s that you lose the passion and the fun that they have. I mean, this team dance in the middle of the game; they’re constantly smiling and they just have so much fun. There’s so much spirit to their game and that can’t be lost either because I actually think that’s one of their strengths and that’s the reason why they’re so successful. So that’s what I would say as well is keep hold of yourselves on this amazing journey which obviously has already started with more funding, bigger teams, you know, all of the brilliant stuff that’s coming their way, but keep hold of that spirit and keep hold of that fun because that’s I think what also sets them apart.” #OurStories #NetballStories #HumansOfNetball