New netballers have range of sporting skills

Press, 18 August 1979, Page 18

New netballers have range of sporting skills

.» goal keeper who started her career as a goal attack and a goal shooter with a hankering for playing on defence are the two new players in the Canterbury senior netball team this winter.

They are far from being schizophrenic; their diverse abilities or ambitions merely reflect their comprehensive netball backgrounds and thei? general sporting versatility.

Cia Stenstrom and Dianna Sullivan are the two girls concerned, and they have both shown ability in other sports. Stenstrom, in fact, is a member of the national volleyball squad and has played indoor basketball. while Sullivan is a convert from hockey. A 21-year-old post graduate Teachers’ College student, Stenstrom oreviously represented Waikato as a goal-keeper and will bring a considerable amount of experience to the Canterbury side. Sullivan, on the other hand, is just 18, but if enthusiasm and application count for anything she should make rapid progress.

Stenstrom started playing netball in her fifth form year at Hamilton. Girls’ High School. She was initially a goal attack and centre, but because the school had a glut of goalies she switched to the defence and has been a goal keeper ever since. She progressed from the Waikato secondaryschools’ team to the provincial senior side in 1976, and did so well that she gained North Island selection. Achilles tendon damage troubled her at one stage, but she recovered to make strong showings at national tournaments and coaching schools.

The president of the New Zealand Netball Association, Anne Taylor, was the first to recognise Cia’s potential, coaching and selecting her at school, and again in her first year at senior level.

Benefitting from this impetus, Stenstrom received valuable aid from the current national captain. Lynne Parker, who taught her how to read

the game and gave her such valuable tips as splitting her vision and keeping her head up constantly. “She was really in to the .science of the

game,” Cia said. Nervousness before. game is unknown to Stenstrom — perhaps because she has reached the state where she plays netball as a habit. Her dedication to the sport has brought her to hate dirty play, concentrate '\n developing her skills rather than breaking the rules, and refrain from criticising anyone involved with netball. “Winning is nice — no, it’s more than that, it’s important —- but not at all costs,” she said. Looking back from the Mainland to her days as a Waikato representative, Stenstrom has the distinct feeling that netball in the south is more relaxed; that there is extra pressure in the north, possibly because of the bigger unions and the greater competition for places in teams. She believes that this extra pressure comes out in the play of North Island teams and that, as a consequence, jthey play faster netball. Dianna Sullivan is another non-Canterbury product. She came from the hotbed of women’s hockey, Eastern Southland, and it was only natural that she should wield the hockey stick in her early sporting years. She was an intermediate representative, too, but when her St Peter’s School was short of netball players for a trip to Nelson she was given a crash course in the game, and subsequently went on the journey. She has not looked back to hockey since.

Her switch to netball was made in the fourth form, so this is only her fourth season in the sport. She was goal shooter and

goal attack in the Villa Maria A team and, after leaving shcool, joined the Sacred Heart club and played goal shooter for the senior B team.

But although she revels in attacking and shooting goals, Sullivan occasionally casts eyes at the other end of the court. “I would like to play

defence,” she said. “I know that sounds stupid coming from me, but I would like to get up and defend right down the court.” She loves netball — but doesn’t know why — and believes that there are always new things to learn about the skilful sport. Her desire for a switch to the defence has come about because she is a little bored with being a

goal shooter. Dianna’s success at netball has been greatly helped by parental support and able coaching. Her father encouraged her to keep going, and her mother thought nothing of wallowing in the snow at nine o’clock on a cool Southland morning to help her daughter practise, Her parents never miss seeing her play and accompany her to tournaments. “They do everything; I just have to play the netball. They are so proud.”

Three coaches have had a great influence on the 18-year-old player in her short but successful career. Her present coach, Phillipa McLean, an excellent player in her own right, showed her team how to play by personal example and experience.

“Kay O’Reilly, Sacred Heart" A’s coach, is as good as any in Canterbury. She is hard on the girls at practice, but she gets results. You have to be hard at senior level.” Her coach at Villa Maria, Kate Carpinter, taught her the holding technique. “She made me practise and practise.”