Netball Moments

When I was little, I am guessing about 7, I was playing netball (as GK - Goal Keeper) and our team must have had a good day because the ball never game down my end of the court.

To amuse ourselves the Goal Shooter played airplanes. Now I can't remember how it started but it did make sense and it amused us to no end.

My birth mother wasn't amused and repeated the story for years, always emphasizing how humiliated she had been.

I have been watching junior netball for a few weeks now and to my utmost delight I have found girls in a similar situation searching for flowers on the pitch (the younger kids play on a grass court instead of the more traditional asphalt), having conversations, looking at birds, sitting down and waiting patiently and ... well filling in the time any way they can. And the parents on the sideline notice but they express no shame, more of a sympathy or at the very least an empathy. Add to that an incredible sense of pride as they watch their little athletes, or their team mates, develop their skills and do things this week that they didn't do last week.

Our team is not the best in the competition but all of the players turn up with a light heart, genuinely looking forward to having a run around with their friends. And they improve as they go along.

It sounds silly but I have been so ashamed over playing airplanes ever since it happened - and now I realize it is perfectly normal.

So I throw away the shame, and replace it with a smile and a warm heart. After all, kids are kids and junior sport was always meant to be fun :-)