By ROY WARD
GREATER Dandenong will pilot a statewide netball in schools program with Netball Victoria.
The Melbourne Vixens Friendly Schools program was launched on Tuesday and will see Dandenong West, Dandenong South, Wooranna Park, Lyndale Green and Rosewood Downs primary schools all involved in the program, which aims to introduce netball to students unfamiliar with the game.
The program will go for six weeks with 75 children from each school doing a one-hour netball clinic from Netball Victoria and then competing in a multi-school netball tournament. The students will also be put in contact with local associations.
Both boys and girls are expected to join in the program although individual schools may choose to just include girls.
Netball Victoria community engagement officer Cassandra Hadson said the sport wanted to get more netballers from multicultural backgrounds to join local clubs.
“It’s an area we identified as having a lack of netball knowledge and needed an opportunity to participate in the sport,” she said.
“We have made gains through our Access All Abilities programs and in male participation but there are gains to be made in this area.”
Hadson said she expected the program, which was made in partnership with VicHealth, to also be used in Wyndham, Brimbank and Hume councils this year and then in a number of other Victorian municipalities next year.
She also said the program would be available to other schools in Greater Dandenong over the next two years.
Melbourne Vixens players Geva Mentor and Kate Beveridge attended the opening of the program and mixed with students from the schools.
Hadson said Mentor, from England, was an ideal role model for the program as she came from a multicultural background and had excelled in the sport.
“It was good to have Geva on board,” Hadson said “She understands where these children are starting from and can be champion of change for us.”
Dandenong and District Netball Association and the South Eastern Region Migrant Resource Centre are also supporters of the program.
