{"id":172920,"date":"2017-03-19T15:36:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T05:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=172920"},"modified":"2020-09-20T17:09:12","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T07:09:12","slug":"netball-numbers-almost-double","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/03\/19\/netball-numbers-almost-double\/","title":{"rendered":"Netball Numbers Almost Double"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New Nanango netballers Miajyn Hegarty, Lesley Daniels and Mia Sandow are so keen on the sport they travel from Cherbourg every week to compete<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March 19, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Nanango and Districts Netball Association (NDNA) has had a membership explosion this year, and the evidence was in plain view on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The club’s courts at Brooklands Road were jam-packed with keen young players and their parents, all enjoying a final pre-season “Come And Try” day before the 2017 competition begins in earnest next week.<\/p>\n

Nanango has run a joint competition with neighbouring Kingaroy for many years, but this year both clubs decided to suspend it so they could focus on building their membership bases.<\/p>\n

Nanango has been an early beneficiary of this arrangement, with sign-ups almost doubling to 135 in the past four weeks.<\/p>\n

A big block of the club’s new members have come from Cherbourg, which doesn’t have any netball courts of its own.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each week about 50 players make the journey to Nanango by bus.<\/p>\n

“We are so happy to welcome these new, fresh, enthusiastic, talented players into our association,” NDNA president Sheena Lindholm said.<\/p>\n

“There are three main ladies behind bringing girls over from Cherbourg, and they’re passionate about giving these girls a start in the sport.<\/p>\n

“However, they’re looking for funding to get uniforms for some of the girls, and if numbers keep growing they may need a second mini-bus too.”<\/p>\n

Sheena said that so far the new players have been holding their own fundraising barbecues, but anyone who’d like to help is very welcome to make a direct deposit donation to NDNA’s account.<\/strong><\/p>\n

NDNA itself is still applying for funding to replace their courts, which need to be demolished and rebuilt to eliminate long-standing problems with flooding on the site.<\/p>\n

“We’ve raised more than $110,000 of our $260,000 goal, and with the current courts now running at capacity the need to get this funding is even more urgent,” Sheena said.<\/p>\n

“But we’re confident we can do it.”<\/p>\n

This year the club is hosting Midget, Junior, Cadet and Senior competitions.<\/p>\n

New players are still welcome, though, and anyone who’d like to join any of the competitions should turn up at the netball courts at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon to get more details about fees, uniforms and times, or they can phone Sheena on 0439-085-947.<\/p>\n

Direct deposits to assist the club’s Cherbourg players can be made to BSB 638-070 Account Number 791-6361 using “C-Donate” as a reference.<\/p>\n