Ever heard of netball? It's mostly played in British Commonwealth nations. Being a former British colony, many Tanzanians play netball. Our students have been practising every day to improve their netball skills!
The STA Junior Netball Team, 2016. Scola (C), Violet (GD), Beatrice (GS), Rahma (WD), Amina (GA), Loleni (WA), Hadija (GK)
Netball has a lot of rules. You can't move your feet once you have the ball, you have only three seconds to throw the ball to someone else and it is a non-contact sport which means you can't touch anyone. Plus many many more rules. The students at STA have worked hard to learn all the rules through drills and skills practise each day at break.
Rahma and Amina trying to get the ball during a ball-up.
We don't have a netball court or even netball rings at school so the students shoot goals by throwing the ball at a tree stump. We play in a pretty small area but we make do with what we have. The students have learned to play different games to practise defending, throwing and catching. They are slowly learning about the positions and where each player is allowed and not allowed on the court. Once a week we have a practise game where students work together as a team and get ready for the inter-school competition.
A practice game at STA
After a week of trials the STA Junior and Senior netball teams were announced. The senior team gets to play against other schools on some weekends and the Junior team trains with the Senior team.
The STA Senior Netball Team. Alyat (GA), Maimuna (C), Regina (WA), Husna (GK), Salama J (GD), Mariam (GS) and Asha (WD)
A few weekends ago the STA Senior netball team had their first game in the Bagamoyo Inter-Schools Sports League. Teacher Lauren was the umpire and helped students from STA and other schools to learn the proper netball rules. All the girls tried hard to learn the rules and improved with each game. The STA students got to have a shot at actual netball goals and they played on a larger court which meant they could spread out more.
Steven Tito Academy vs Mwasama
STA throw in.
The STA girls played really well. Asha scored a goal. She had a huge smile on her face and rolled around in the grass in excitement after the unexpected goal. Mwasama scored 5 goals to win the game. The girls are excited to play again and are more determined than ever to practise and learn all the rules.
Asha, our Goal Shooter, waiting at the goals with the Mwasama Goal Keeper.
Wanafunzi Questions
Want to connect with our students through our Wanafunzi program? Visit our Wanafunzi page to learn more about how your school can be part of the action at STA.
1. Do you play a sport? Write a paragraph explaining why you like playing that sport.
2. With a partner, in two minutes, try to list as many sports as you can. Then, put the sports you listed into groups. How did you group the sports and why?
3. Watch this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBuxsRnU50A) and make a diagram showing where each player (C, WA, WD, GA, GD, GS, GK) is allowed to go on the netball court. What other rules did you learn from watching the video?
4. Do some online research and answer the following questions: What is the name of the Tanzanian National netball team?, Which country is ranked number 1 in the world for netball?
Additional resources for schools that would like to play netball.
http://www.netball.org/netball/the-rules-of-netball
