Sadie Appleby, Kent Sport Membership Services Manager, updates us about developments with the staff netball coaching sessions.
Louisa Arnold, Kent Coaching Network Officer, has devoted her Monday lunch breaks for the past 3 ½ years to coaching staff netball sessions at Kent Sport. I joined Louisa as a fellow netball enthusiast and have been helping with the sessions for the past year as part of the University Volunteering Scheme.
Staff that attend the sessions have various sporting backgrounds. Some had never played netball before, some played a little at school and others got the bug after attending the Vice-Chancellor’s Cup. The ladies that attend have great attitude, are keen to learn and improve, and get fit in a fun environment. The sessions are open to all and run throughout term time – if you would like to join us please come along, it’s only £1 a session or free to Gold and Silver members.
As with any ‘back to’ sports offering, a coach’s dream is to enable those attending to develop and progress and that is exactly what these sessions had done for many of the attendees. All were offered the opportunity to enter as a team in a local netball league – the response was amazing. Thirteen members of staff wanted to commit, and thanks to the kind sponsorship from Kent Sport, setting up the team was possible. The group of staff are now known as Kent Unicorns and have been practising as much as they can in their lunchbreaks to be match ready for mid-March.
On the 13 February nine of the Unicorns (Andrea Peett, Alison Webster, Liz Foden, Liz Lukehurst, Emma Marku, Sam Betts, Amy Parkes, Jo Gold and Charlotte Siliafis) played their first ever full match in a pre-season friendly. They have two other friendlies scheduled before the start of the season to gain as much match experience as possible.
To follow Kent Unicorns progress please follow UniKentSports on Twitter or like us on Facebook and visit www.kent.ac.uk/sports.
