Striving to make a big difference
Former Proteas star Vanes-Mari Proudfoot wants to see a drive to provide a professional platform for local netball.
Following the national team’s breakthrough performance at last year’s Netball World Cup in Liverpool, where they narrowly missed out on a historic medal, former Proteas star Vanes-Mari Proudfoot has called on the nation to back the SA squad in the build-up to the 2023 global showpiece in Cape Town.
Proudfoot (previously Du Toit), who married former Springbok assistant coach Matt Proudfoot in 2017, said this week she was stunned at a recent sports quiz where she was the only person in attendance who knew that Bongi Msomi was the captain of the SA side.
“It was shocking...it nearly made my blood boil,” 30-year-old Proudfoot told
TuksSport.
“I think it is time that we start to treasure our national netball players the same way as we do our Springboks, or Bafana Bafana or the Proteas cricket players.
“These girls are as dedicated as any male athlete, but it doesn’t seem to matter.”
One of the country’s best players at the peak of her career, Proudfoot was equally capable on attack and defence.
Supported by a solid 1.89-metre frame, the versatile player from Pretoria competed at the 2011 Netball World Cup in Singapore, where the SA squad finished fifth, and the following year she helped the national team secure the bronze medal at the Fast5 World Series in Auckland.
Though she would not be on the court at the 2023 World Cup in the Mother
City, as she no longer competed at international level, Proudfoot said she was in full support of the Proteas squad.
She hoped the rest of the country would also get behind the team as they targeted their first medal at the quadrennial spectacle since 1995.
“It is a given that every national player will put in long hours of training and make considerable sacrifices to ensure they are at their best for the World Cup,” she said.
“What will help is if they feel that they belong. It is up to us as sports fans to do that.
“After all, it is us who want them to be our heroes.”
Most of the members of the Proteas squad were still training and competing part-time, while studying or holding down full-time jobs.
Proudfoot, who competed for Tuks, Gauteng North and English side Yorkshire Jets during her career, believed it was important that the sport continued its drive to provide a professional platform for local players.
“If a player should choose so, they should be allowed to make a career from playing. It would be a way to grow the sport.
“Would it not be great if netball in SA could be more than a mere sport?”