Adelaide Thunderbirds star Latanya Wilson on her Jamaican connections and journey from ‘water girl’ to defensive ‘menace’.
Adelaide is a long way from Latanya Wilson’s Kingston home, but the Thunderbirds’ defensive star is keeping homesickness at bay by sharing regular home-style meals with her Jamaican Super Netball compatriots.
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Steamed fish, curried mutton and French fried chicken.
Adelaide Thunderbirds star Latanya Wilson has revealed the secret recipe to staving off home sickness while playing the self-described “menace” to the league’s best attackers in Super Netball – with a little help from her fellow Jamaicans.
While living her dream of playing in the world’s top netball league, Wilson admitted she did get “lonely” being away from her family and friends in Kingston, but she had found a taste of home with her Jamaican netball cohort in Australia.
One of eight Jamaicans in Super Netball, including her Thunderbirds teammates Romelda Aiken-George and the now pregnant Shamera Sterling-Humphrey, Wilson has spilt the beans on the cook outs she enjoys with her compatriots.
“We are united off court, we talk and we ensure that everybody is doing well,” Wilson said of the camaraderie among the Jamaicans in the league.
“Whenever we are playing in another city with a Jamaican there, we try and do a cook out and invite our other fellow Jamaicans to come over and have food or we go somewhere.
“We just try and keep that connection and stay in touch with each other.
“However, on court, we are not friends. We’re enemies (laughing).”
So, who is the best cook among the league’s Jamaican stars?
“I’ll give a tie between Jhaniele (Fowler-Nembhard) and Shamera. Both of them are pretty good cooks,” Wilson said.
“Shamera is really good at steamed fish, it is the best steamed fish. Steamed fish, rice and peas, that’s Shamera’s speciality.
“And Jhaniele is with pork or curried mutton and french fried chicken.”
Now in her fifth season in Super Netball, Wilson, 24, has a home away from home living with her teammate and goaling ace Aiken-George, who she describes as a “mother” figure.
“She is the one that cooks all my meals, she is like my mother and I’m her second child,” Wilson said.
“Shammy (Sterling-Humphrey), Romelda and I were living together and now since Shammy has gone back home (to Jamaica), it is Romelda and I and Sanna (Sanmarie Visser).
“I love having Romelda around, she is very funny, very unserious as well. It is always nice to get someone that knows your culture or understands a cultural joke or just to talk in your own language because even though English is our first language we speak Patois most of the time so to be able to have Romelda around and to be able to talk our Jamaican language is good.”
A member of the Super Netball team of the year at wing defence last season, Wilson formed part of a formidable defensive unit alongside Sterling-Humphrey before her teammate announced in early May she was expecting her first child and would not take part in the rest of the 2025 campaign.
Wilson said she was missing her fellow Jamaican defensive star on court and confessed she initially didn’t believe Sterling-Humphrey’s news.
“I thought she was lying at first. But then we sat down and had a conversation and I realised that she had told everyone and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s for real’,” Wilson said.
“So, I didn’t believe her when she first told me.
“It’s an exciting time for Shamera. It’s an incredible journey and if you know Shammy, she always wanted to be a mum so that’s an incredible opportunity for her to have her first child.
“But I am definitely missing her here and out there on court.”
DEFENSIVE ‘MENACE’
Sterling-Humphrey’s absence has opened the door to a different role for Wilson, who has taken her high-energy defence to goal keeper in recent weeks.
Wilson was named Thunderbirds’ club champion for the first time last year, largely at wing defence or goal defence.
“I’m liking it, it’s not my usual starting (position) because you know I’m always out there running up and down,” the two-time Thunderbirds’ premiership player said.
“It’s normally a slow start but I’m working on that in terms of getting myself a little bit more pumped … not taking too long to start the game because at GK you don’t do a lot of work compared to what you do at goal defence or wing defence
“She (Sterling-Humphrey) is an incredible player. I’m coming in (to GK), I feel like I am just finding my own feet which is quite nice.”
Regardless of whether she’s out the front hunting balls or in the goal circle keeping the goalers on edge, Wilson’s mission remains the same.
“I describe myself to be a menace on court. That’s what I hope for,” Wilson said.
“Just to be that underdog person that is going to go for everything. I’m going to give it my all, no matter what position I play, I’m going to go out there and give it my all.
“My aim is to always annoy my attackers, so just being that menace on court.”
WATER GIRL
But it was initially a slow build to Wilson’s menacing ways on court.
Wilson recalled her love for netball starting in primary school in Jamaica, but she wasn’t good enough to crack a place in the team.
“I fell in love with the sport in primary school, but I wasn’t good enough, so I was the water girl,” she laughed.
“Then I went to a netball high school. At the time the high school I went to was doing really well in netball and because I loved the sport from primary school, I decided to join my high school team and that’s when I started to learn the fundamental part of the game because I didn’t in primary school because I was the water girl.
“I started learning it then and at around 14-15 I got selected for the under-16 team and I realised I could make it far in netball.
“I had a pretty good coach that was an umpire internationally. He used to umpire in Australia and New Zealand.
“He would come back and tell us all about what was happening in Australia and New Zealand and how much money you can make and how you can take a career far.
“So all of us at high school on that team wanted to come to Australia and play netball.”
Wilson said she was now living her “dream” playing in Australia, even if it was challenging at times being 16,000 km away from her family.
“Sometimes it does get lonely, like I do miss my family and friends, but I’m enjoying every single moment of it,” Wilson said.
“This is where I wanted to be, this is the dream, so I’m living the dream.”
The fifth of nine children, Wilson stays in touch with her family as best she can via video calls during the season, but admits it often gets hard due to the time difference.
“It is quite difficult at times because of the time zones … Australia is ahead of Jamaica by 15 and a half hours, so it is quite hard at times and they have work,” Wilson said.
“Sometimes I have to give up sleep to catch up with them and vice versa.”
FAMILY INSPIRATION
But Wilson’s family is always with her when she is out on the court – especially the memory of her late brother.
Wilson’s older brother, Trevonn, died just weeks before she realised her dream of signing a Super Netball contract.
But she said he remained her greatest inspiration on court.
“My brother has always been a big part of why I’m doing what I am doing,” Wilson said.
“The fact that he did not get the opportunity of seeing me coming to Australia because when he died I was still playing for England, I was finalising my deal coming to Australia.
“My journey is all about my brother and each day, each game I do it … because I know that is what he would want for me, so going out there and representing him is all I think about.
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Originally published as Adelaide Thunderbirds star Latanya Wilson on her Jamaican connections and journey from ‘water girl’ to defensive ‘menace’.
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