The Sporting Chance Street Netball regional finals took place on the streets of eight Cape communities on Youth Day, Friday 16 June, in a fitting celebration of Mzansi’s vibrant young people.
In all, 768 girls under age of 13 competed in the regional finals, which took place simultaneously from 10:00 to 12:30 across the Cape’s communities, including that of Nomzamo in Strand, where streets came alive as they were transformed into netball courts, and the teams hotly competed for a top spot.
The regional finals followed eight weeks of round-robin netball matches that have been taking place every Friday afternoon since the Street Netball campaign launched on Friday 21 April.
The winning teams from the regional finals will now go through to battle it out at the Festival Finale, which will take place on Saturday 29 July at the 2023 Vitality Netball World Cup (VNWC) Fan Park and will be part of the official line-up of events planned around this exciting international event.
The two teams from each community – winners and runners-up – who go through to compete in the Festival Finale are Sri Lanka and Scotland from Langa, 7 Strikers and Trevor Stars from Khayelitsha, Battswood and Perivale from Grassy Park, South Africa and Trinidad from Ocean View, Sunrise NC and Thembe-Elihle NC from Mfuleni, Fiji and England from Mitchell’s Plain, the Black Diamonds and Strand Kasi Queens from Nomzamo, and Ivon United and Avon Spurs from Elsies River.
Sponsored by the City of Cape Town and Sunbet Cares, and endorsed by the Cape Town Netball Federation and Netball South Africa, Street Netball is an initiative conceived and coordinated by Sporting Chance (a youth sports development organisation based in Cape Town) to get children back out onto the streets to play sports and lead a healthy and an active lifestyle.
It is also about guiding them towards future opportunities through the valuable lessons of sport.
The Sporting Chance Street Netball initiative has seen all of the girls being given essential life skills training by supporting partner Emthonjeni Counselling and Training. Topics covered over the weeks have included self-esteem, decision-making, surviving or striving, leadership, dreaming Big, managing stress and anxiety, sexual and reproductive health, hygiene, socio-economic empowerment, gender-based violence and keeping girls at school.
In addition to this, SA netball icon Phumza Maweni and the Phumza Maweni Foundation have assisted in identifying netball players that display exceptional talent and flair, and will mentor and monitor their netball progress in future.
“Cape Town has become the home of netball and the City’s support for the Sporting Chance Street Netball programme forms part of the legacy we want the Netball World Cup to leave behind. We believe that programmes such as these are important for the empowerment of young women and the transformation of communities.
We are proud to be involved in providing opportunities for the growth and development of these young aspiring netball stars,” said the City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee member for Safety and Security Alderman JP Smith.
He also attended the regional finals on Friday 16 June and showed off some of his netball skills on the court.
For more information on The Sporting Chance Street Netball, contact Brad Bing on 082 479 2916 or Natalie Pollock on 082 722 9653. Log onto www.sportingchance.co.za or join facebook.com/sportingchance for regular updates on the initiative, tips on how to join or support it.
