Netball Australia launches camp to encourage indigenous players

Netball Australia has unveiled plans for its first indigenous high performance camp.

Marcia Ella-Duncan, centre, with, from left, Kayla Nakhoul, Halle Pierson, Courtney Jones and Olivia Cooper at Netball Australia’s indigenous camp announcement. Picture: John Feder

Netball Australia has unveiled plans for its first indigenous high- performance camp, targeted at addressing lagging indigenous participation at the highest levels.

Twenty athletes have been invited to the Australian Institute of Sport to train from July 7-9 under the watch of some of netball’s finest coaches, including national head coach Lisa Alexander.

Also in attendance will be Marcia Ella-Duncan and Sharon Finnan-White, the only indigenous women to play for the Diamonds.

The indigenous high-performance camp will be one of only seven elite programs Netball Australia will run in 2017, and forms a part of the body’s broader reconciliation action plan.

According to Ella-Duncan, the first Aboriginal woman invited to the AIS and now a board member at Netball Australia, the camp will move beyond skills development and focus on preparing players for the demands of elite sport.

“The high-performance camp is about building resilience, understanding what the pathway looks like, and what expectations are,” Ella-Duncan said. “We want to see our indigenous players succeed, and they want to succeed, so the better we can prepare them emotionally, psychologically and physically, the better our chance of success.”

Kayla Nakhoul is one of the athletes invited to the camp. At 17, she’s already a fixture for Eastwood Ryde’s under-20s side in the NSW Premier League feeder competition. Nakhoul said she “didn’t think (the camp) was real” when she received a phone call from Netball NSW informing her of her selection, but now can’t wait to get to Canberra.

“I am so honoured and excited to go, it’s a big privilege to be coached by high-performance coaches like Lisa Alexander,” Nak­houl said.

Nakhoul has only ever played alongside one other indigenous netballer — a common experience, says Ella-Duncan.

“When we’re playing in a nat­ional competition, and are one out in a squad or team, it can be quite isolating. So we’ve also got the benefit of trying to build a network among the players that are there, so they can share their experiences and support each other. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get kids together,” she said.

State bodies and private organisations have previously organised camps for indigenous netballers, but three days at the AIS is a significant advancement for the sport, says Finnan-White.

“I am excited because most of these girls will get an opportunity that I never had at their age. I would really like these girls to walk away knowing exactly what they need to do to progress up the elite pathway in terms of the mental toughness and resilience,” she said.

There is only one indigenous netballer playing Super Netball, and the Diamonds haven’t featured an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander player since Finnan-White retired in 2000.

This camp is something that she and Ella-Duncan have been dreaming of for a very long time, and they are both very excited about its launch. But, as Finnan-White stressed, her job was not done until Australia produced another indigenous Diamond.