Netball Seychelles Netball Association hosts awareness march |22 August 2023

The children and parents getting ready for the hike (Photo: Contributed)

In its effort to raise awareness about netball and attract more young people to the sport, the sport’s local governing body recently hosted some activities, including a hike, involving kids from different primary schools from the northern and central regions of Mahe.

The activities which took place at the Roche Caïman sports complex was jointly organised by the Seychelles Netball Association (SNA) and a group of parents.

Speaking to Sports NATION, SNA chairman Dorothy Isidore said the aim of the event was to promote netball amongst the younger generation and also to help children who are facing obesity.

Aiming at tackling the issue of obesity in school, the SNA began its activities with a hike which started at Sans Soucis leading to the Rochon dam, before those taking part made their way down to the Roche Caïman sports complex, through the Copolia trial.

Ms Isidore said the activities were initially scheduled for August 12, but due to the arrival of the Logos Hope ship, they postponed it to last Saturday.

“We figured that most of the kids would go visit the Logos Hope, thus reducing the number of participants, we therefore pushed our activities to August 19,” explained Ms Isidore.

She added that after the 150 children from different primary schools had had a rest following the hike, they engaged in the netball development programme to learn the fundamentals of the sport.

“After they had rested the children took part in what we called a mini jamboree, where we taught them the attributes of netball, such as passing, movement and how the game is played,” further explained Ms Isidore, who added that members of the association helped out with games whereby each one of them took charge of a group of 15 children.

She also noted that the association was satisfied with the turnout and the children showed good interest in netball.

“We could see the interest from the kids when they were playing, even though they had just learned the basics of the sport. Many showed promising signs, while they also vouched to spread the awareness of netball in their respective schools,” added Ms Isidore. 

The SNA is also planning to introduce netball at the Bel Eau primary school at the beginning of the third school term by providing them with adjustable goal posts for the children to be able to play and enjoy the game.

Ms Isidore said they will also be implementing their youth development programme in other primary schools.

 “We will give the goal posts to the schools with the aim of sparking an interest among the younger generation to learn about the concept of netball and how fun the sport is,” said Ms Isidore who also added that she is glad that many youths are getting to know netball and by receiving good cooperation they would be able to popularise netball in the country.

“We need the youths to integrate the sport and through the youth development programme we can secure future players for netball teams,” concluded Ms Isidore.

Neil Sirame