A group of women from all over the West Rand have donned their supermom suits and are jetting off to Malaysia for the inaugural Asia Pacific Masters Games as the SA Warriors Netball team.
A year ago, these women were simply trying to find a place where ladies older than 40 could play as part of a league, but to no avail. In light of their unsuccessful attempts to find such a league or team, they took it upon themselves to form their own team.
And just like that, SA Warriors Netball was formed. In November 2017, they registered to play in the 2018 Asia Pacific Masters Games in Penang, Malaysia, as part of the 40–50-year-old age category.To prepare themselves for the task ahead, they began training at Charterhouse School in Radiokop, and then started playing action netball at the Midrand Action Sports arena. They subsequently won the first league in which they took part at the Midrand arena, and are now (at the time of writing) once again top of the log standings in their league.
With their success on the action netball scene showing the fruit of their hard work, they will be taking part in their first social programme at the New Life Centre in Midrand, a non-profit organisation catering for abused and disadvantaged girls, before they head overseas.
Sadly, the players have had to cover their own travel, registration, and accommodation costs, which amounted to about R250 000, as they were only able to find sponsorship for their kits.
The team is heading to this year’s Games, with the intention of using the Games as a learning curve to help them establish where they stand in terms of ability.
They will jet off to Malaysia on 4 September, and will take part in the Games from 7–15 September.
You can follow them on Instagram here
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