WORKING AS ONE
Surfers Paradise Demons are kicking goals on many fronts with a new netball division thriving after linking with the Aussie rules club
IT is wonderful to see sports on the Gold Coast joining forces to develop participation numbers.
What Aussie rules and netball have successfully achieved here sets a great example for others to follow.
Surfers Paradise Demons Netball Club was formed this year by Emily Lee and Jo Chatfield.
Emily and Jo both coached for a club that needed to relocate just before the 2018 netball season, leaving about 40 players without a club in their local area.
The easy option would have been to move all the players into clubs already playing at the Southport Carrara Netball Association (SCNA).
This would have split friends and teammates and possibly lost players to the sport.
Instead, Emily and Jo decided to establish a new club, hoping to help promote growth in the junior competition at SCNA.
When looking to form a new club they discovered some of their young players already were playing Australian rules football with Surfers Paradise Demons Football Club.
It made perfect sense to Emily and Jo to seek an alliance between the two codes.
The benefit of doing this meant the young girls didn’t have to choose between sports but could participate across codes and be supported and encouraged to do so.
The netball club approached Surfers Paradise Demons Football Club believing it would be a great opportunity for two sports to promote, foster and support the growth of women’s participation in sport.
The response from the Demons football club was overwhelmingly positive and their vision to create an inclusive sporting club on the Gold Coast was born.
This not-for-profit netball club is run by volunteer mums and is registered at SCNA.
The Surfers Paradise Demons had seven teams taking the court for the 2018 season – five junior teams (aged from 7 to 16) for the Saturday morning competition and another two Intermediate teams (aged from 11 to 16) who played on a Monday night.
Their first year has been extremely successful with four of the junior teams making semi- finals and one of the Intermediate teams winning their division.
If there are any coaches or players interested in becoming involved with an exciting, inclusive and forward-thinking club, please email demonsnetballclub@gmail.com.
They would love to hear from you.
This is a great example of bringing sports together to get better outcomes for our sporting youth.
THE Gold Coast Academy of Sport is excited about new programs that will begin shortly.
A surf lifesaving development program starts on Wednesday at the Kurrawa club and continues for five weeks.
GCAS also has an Athletes with Disabilities basketball program commencing in October with applications opening shortly.
If interested, please email programs@goldsport.com.au.