With the Covid-19 Pandemic putting netball on hold and forcing us to stay home, Netball NSW is using the time off to focus on everyday heroes in our game's state-wide community.
Do you have a Netball Hero in your part of NSW that we can celebrate? It could be a player, a coach, a cook... If you do then please send a note to mediateam@netballnsw.com and we'll get in touch. Alternatively, you can message us on Facebook.
To get us started here's our first Hero - Colette Longley from Manly Warringah who received the Anne Clark BEM Service Award at last year's Netball NSW State Dinner.
Colette Longley (Manly Warringah Netball Association)
Colette Longley has a strong connection to netball in the Manly Warringah area. She has been a member of the Manly Warringah Netball Association for 52 years, starting as a player at age eight.
Her early journey can be traced through association with the Seaforth, Queenscliff and Cromer netball clubs. During her junior and intermediate playing days she also coached and umpired before going to become a Manly Warringah representative both on court, and umpiring on the sidelines.
In 1979 she was a founding member of a new club, Comets Netball. It was primarily Colette who set the club in motion. As founder, she wrote the Constitution and Club Policy, and over the next 40 years, would assume all roles within the Comets as a player, umpire, coach, administrator, and still continues her involvement as an umpire, advisor, club patron and as President for the last 16 years.
Also a very respected coach, she worked at state level with NSW opens and underage teams, and was part of the Swifts’ backroom team that won the 2004 Premiership. She was awarded Life Membership of Manly Warringah in 2002 and in 2019 took over the role of Association President.
A brilliant servant of netball, Colette is one of the many members of our netball community whose work ethic and dedication mean we'll come back from this coronavirus-enforced break stronger than ever.
