Written by Amelia Barnes
Congratulations to Sandringham & District Netball Association — one of two organisations recently named Association of the Year at Netball Victoria’s 2022 Community Awards.
Since 1987, Sandringham & District Netball Association (known before 2013 as Sandringham Youth Club Netball Association) has supported the local netball community, growing to over 2000 members across 12 affiliated clubs today.
The not-for-profit association located in bayside Melbourne was recognised as Association of the Year in 2022 based on its development and implementation of strategic planning post-COVID lockdowns.
Following two challenging years, the board together with netball manager Angela Moscati identified key areas of focus to ensure the continued growth of the sport in the safest, most inclusive, and most supportive environment possible.
“Most important was trying to raise a standard of players, coaches, and umpires, which is at the heart of what we do,” said Moscati.
“Also a really big part of this year was to make it as easy as possible for kids to be on the court… All that red tape was kind of pushed aside — we said let's just get them on the court and try and make it as inclusive and happy as possible for them. Because we did have a lot of kids that really struggled coming back from COVID. We had umpires that struggled, and we had coaches that struggled.”
Among board initiatives was the introduction of a new marketing strategy, including a new website, to promote the association’s offerings including winter and spring competitions; representative teams; Woolworths NetSetGO; and All Abilities netball.
Both the All Abilities netball and NetSetGO programs saw their highest ever levels of participation in 2022, resulting in Sandringham & District Netball Association also being named a finalist of Netball Victoria’s Inclusive Netball Community of the Year award, and joint winners of NetSetGO Centre of the Year.
The All Abilities program provides opportunities for children and adults with a disability to participate in netball, and is the only netball program of its kind operating in the Bayside City Council area.
“Their numbers are increasing from term to term, and I don't think that's going to stop for a while,” said Moscati, who credits the program’s success to its coordinator, volunteer Emily Higgins.
“If she could be bottled and sold, that's what everyone should be doing,” said Moscati of Higgins. “The passion and the energy that she brings to that program week in week out is amazing, and she runs it all year.”
Sandringham & District also focused on the growth and development of umpires in 2022 through a new ‘Train & Retain’ umpire program, led by new umpire coordinator Lani Yaksich. This program not only ensures umpires are being upskilled, but that their wellbeing is being supported.
“We want to train as many umpires as possible, and as well as possible, whether they're new or mature or experienced or not… But in order to retain them, they've got to be treated well,” said Moscati.
The latest intake of umpires at Sandringham & District saw 25 new trainees, six umpires receiving their C Badge, and multiple workshops conducted with Netball Victoria including through the WorkSafe Umpires in the Field program. Eight official umpire mentors were also appointed to guarantee each umpire’s development and safety on court.
“The workload has been significant, but we have achieved an enormous amount in a short amount of time,” said Moscati.
In 2023, Sandringham & District will make the long overdue move to a larger facility when the new Bayside Netball Centre opens at Sandringham College.
The association will have access to five more courts (for a total of 12, including three indoors) at the venue, allowing more capacity for people of all genders, ages, and abilities to participate in netball.
Sandringham & District is particularly focused on improving male participation in 2023.
“We've been hindered because we haven't had the court space, so that will no longer be a problem. We'll be in our new facility, and we hope that we’ll have mixed gender competition across every division,” said Moscati.
In winning Association of the Year, Moscati wishes to acknowledge head coach Jo Hockley, neighbouring associations who have offered their support, and the many dedicated volunteers who allow Sandringham & District to operate.
“As netball manager, I am constantly a little in awe of the time and effort, love, and care the people around me put into netball at Sandringham.”
The Association of the Year Award is supported by Flight Centre
