For more than 30 years, Janet Parker has been the kind of volunteer every sporting community hopes for , someone who sees a need, steps forward, and creates opportunities for others.
As part of National Volunteer Week, Netball Victoria is celebrating the incredible people who give their time, energy and passion to help netball thrive across Victoria. Janet’s story is one of dedication, inclusion and building community through sport.
Currently volunteering with the Lakes Entrance Netball Association, Janet’s journey in netball volunteering began in 1994 at Pakenham, where she started as an umpire and coach for her daughter’s Under 9 team. From there, volunteering quickly became a family affair.
Over the years, Janet has coached, umpired, coordinated programs and helped establish opportunities for players of all ages and abilities. One experience, however, changed the direction of her volunteering forever.
After attending a Coaching Athletes with a Disability course, Janet returned determined to create more inclusive opportunities within netball. She launched an All-Abilities netball team and later established All-Abilities Net-Set-Go programs, helping children and adults with disability experience the joy of the game.
“I was hooked,” Janet said. “I was very excited to go back and start my own program.”
That passion for inclusion has continued across multiple communities.
Following a move to Drouin in 2004, Janet established Net-Set-Go programs and All-Abilities competitions that are still running more than two decades later. When she later relocated to Lakes Entrance, she discovered there was no junior netball competition in the area.
Rather than accept that reality, Janet got to work.
She joined the local committee, delivered free clinics at schools and helped launch new junior competitions that have since grown year-on-year. Today, the Lakes Entrance Netball Association includes Net-Set-Go participants, Under 9 and Under 13 competitions, accredited coaches and a growing group of young umpires.
Janet has also played a key role in strengthening coaching and umpiring pathways within the region, encouraging volunteers to become accredited and mentoring the next generation of officials.
“We are in a really good place at the moment with all coaches and umpires being accredited,” she said.
For Janet, volunteering has always been about creating opportunities and helping people feel connected.
“It is the joy of seeing players on the court enjoying themselves, offering them the opportunity to meet new people, learn new skills, without them even realising the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes,” she said.
One moment in particular remains especially meaningful.
Janet recalled receiving a phone call from a participant in the women’s social netball competition who admitted she had been nervous to return to the sport after many years away.
After her first game, the player shared how welcomed, supported and included she felt , and how much she had realised she needed netball back in her life.
For Janet, it perfectly captured the impact community sport can have.
“We are offering a safe place in the community for kids and women to come and have fun while playing the game that I love,” she said.
Among her many proud moments, one stands above the rest: seeing an All-Abilities Net-Set-Go participant in a wheelchair toss the coin alongside Kate Moloney during an Inclusion Round match for the Melbourne Vixens.
Now, Janet is watching the next generation continue the work she started, including her own granddaughter, who coaches Net-Set-Go, umpires junior games and plays herself.
“I smile because we are offering a safe place in the community for kids and women to come and have fun while playing the game that I love,” Janet said.
This National Volunteer Week, Netball Victoria thanks Janet and every volunteer across the state who helps create welcoming, inclusive and thriving netball communities.
