Spencer Chittem disliked school so much that he missed more days than he attended. He had never played sport and struggled to make friends. Having been exposed to challenging family situations during his young life, he suffered from social anxiety, behavioural issues and a lack of confidence.
And then he found netball.
Spencer Chittem is 10. The youngest of five children and a live-in uncle to two, home is the Latrobe Valley town of Morwell, where he embraces his Indigenous background as a member of the Gunnai people of Gunaikurnai country.
But it is through netball that the keen new player and learner umpire has discovered a happy place.
“It just helps me not think about anything else, because I’m thinking about the game. That helped me overcome a bit of fear,’’ Spencer says.
“It definitely boosted my confidence a lot, especially with all my other teammates saying ‘you’ve got this’, and stuff.’’
At the start of this year, mum Angela was heading to a Gippsland Sports Academy come-and-try netball session in her capacity as an Aboriginal support person when Spencer, who was complaining of being bored, asked to tag along.
Despite there not being an academy talent pathway for boys, Spencer was told he was welcome to join the girls for the “Together More Active” initiative, and enjoyed it enough that, when family friend and local netball identity Judi Buhagiar suggested she knew a team that would love him to join (her own 13/unders at Melita, in fact), then he promptly did.
For the last few games of the summer season, initially, but so it continues. “I was like ‘yeah, I think I might hop in on this and try and do my best and see what it’s like a little bit', and then I started playing a few more games, and doing trainings got me really interested and helped me.’’
The benefits have been profound, and not just the improved fitness and 3kg weight loss that came within weeks. The only boy in the team - and a young one, at that - was nevertheless made to feel welcome immediately.
“It’s just boosted his confidence,’’ says Angela. “It’s made him feel valued as a person and a player - he feels like a real valued team member - and he sees, too, that the game doesn’t work without everybody playing their part.
“And I think with Spencer not feeling super-confident, he sees other people who seem even less confident than him, and he actually steps up as a leader for them to help them feel comfortable to join in, that it’s OK, because he doesn’t want them to feel how he was feeling.’’
More broadly, Spencer now only misses school - Year 5 at Morwell Central Primary - when unwell, and his behavioural issues have also improved. The only significant schoolyard incident since netball changed everything was dealt with more calmly and maturely, the teaching staff allowing him to continue representing the school team because they know how important that is.
“They were like ‘we’re not going to take netball away from you, mate,’ because that’s one of the things he was really worried about,'' says Angela. "He really wanted to play netball for the school team - he’s the only kid that actually plays netball (outside).’’
Indeed, not only does that mean two games and one training session each week, but Spencer has also started umpiring on Saturday mornings. That seed was planted when Angela - the Moe 11/U squad coach - learnt from the local co-ordinator about the shortage of officiators that is a problem statewide, and mentioned it to Buhagiar, who put the wheels in motion.
The minimum age to complete umpire training is eight. So Spencer began.
“He’s looking forward to getting badged, because he knows he gets a little pay rise when he’s badged!’’ laughs Angela, who took a photo of the recruit with his $20 haul from his first two games. “I was like ‘mate, this is like your first little job’, so he’s really taken pride in himself and what he’s doing, which is amazing to see.’’
At Morwell Central, Spencer says, more boys are involved because they want to represent the school, “and they also want to show that boys can play netball’’. He would also appreciate more visibility at the elite level, as he quite fancies representing Australia one day.
“Oh yeah. And maybe when I’m older I’ll probably become a pro umpire. At my age, and once I grow up, I could probably become a really good umpire.’’ Why not?
Mum Angela would love to find a way to keep him involved long-term in a sport that has proved to be so beneficial in such a short time. What was once pure anxiety is now more like pre-game “anxious excitement”, as Spencer goes from feeling like his heart might jump out of his chest to working through it and doing what needs to be done.
Buhagiar, Netball Victoria's Eastern Victoria Manager, has been a key figure in turning around the life of a boy who won a 2021 NAIDOC Youth of the Year award.
Back in the years when his anxiety about going to school combined with what Angela describes as the difficulty for a more visual and hands-on learner to fit in with the mainstream way of learning that has now been addressed, the threat of losing access to the PlayStation proved ineffective.
Now that he is back, more happily, in the classroom, Angela says, “he just loves netball so much that I’m like ‘if you don’t clean your room you won’t be playing this week’, and it means so much to him that it makes him step up. I mean, he’s 10, so he doesn’t keep his room very clean all the time!
“He’s seen and been through a lot, he’s got a lot on his little shoulders, and he’s got a really kind nature so he takes on a lot more than he probably needs to,’’ Angela continues.
“He’s just improved so much, and the netball has been the icing on the cake. It’s just changed his life.’’
Written by Linda Pearce
