Mccall taking it one step up at a time as she prepares for whirlwind spell on and off the court

Niamh Mccall is part of a new generation of netball players and it is a generation with greater prospects and more role models than ever before, writes Moira Gordon.

“I’m very excited. I’m the youngest in the team at 17 and the first 2000 baby to compete for Scotland at netball, so it’s a great honour to get picked,” said the Strathaven Academy pupil, who will return from Gold Coast to face exams.

“It’s great to be part of a sport on the up at the moment. You go into schools and see it being played and it’s so cool.

“I’m still at school myself, in sixth year, which has made this a difficult thing to balance. Obviously I’ve got my parents driving the school side and then I’ve got coaches driving the netball side, so I’ve had to get everyone to work together to make sure I get the best I can of both worlds. “I’m going to try to get videos of my classes sent over to me when I’m in Australia because we get back on 18 April and the first of my Advanced Highers exams is 3 May.” Studying biology, maths and physics, she has a twin brother who is extremely academic and already studying medicine. “So I get compared to him all the time – and then we go to sport, and I have the upper hand!”

But it does mean that she will have some tough decisions to make in the summer.

“I’ve got offers to go to university to do either biomedical engineering or sports engineering – I can’t decide which one to do yet. They’re from Strathclyde and Dundee, and Loughborough.

“They have a really good Super League team down there but obviously I’d be away from my team [the Scottish Thistles] so you have to think about whether it would benefit me or not?

“Playing down there would be good but netball is a real team sport, it’s all about combinations and it can take a while to gel with players, but once you have it, you have it for a long time.”

But with more and more opportunities to play in the professional ranks, she is keeping her options open.

“The Sirens are our professional team, in just their second year, and I’m not in it yet but you’ve got to dream big and going to Australia and New Zealand would be amazing as well.

“Netball is big there and you can get paid to play if you’re good enough.”