Jersey netball relies on the support of our valued volunteers who make a huge contribution to the game both on and off the court.
Volunteering is a rewarding experience and a great way to get involved and give back to the netball community.
From fundraising to event set up, scoring and media support there’s roles for everyone no matter your level of netball expertise or free-time you can offer.
From sidelines to Centre Stage
Megan O'Connor - Lead Parent VolunteerI played netball at school myself many years ago; my playing skills were, and still are, very basic. I never imagined I would be a lead volunteer for Jersey Netball one day – my school friends would laugh! However, when my daughter started to play at school in Year 4, she took to it really well. From there she joined the school team and was hooked! I still don’t play netball, but I absolutely love supporting the girls in various ways and my passion for watching and helping has grown from there. I ended up, when my daughter was in Year 6, sitting in the car for many hours on a cold winter night trying to watch her through the car windscreen. At a meeting about taking Jersey Netball forward, I met Serena and that was it! I was on the volunteer team!
The volunteer role is very exciting to be a part of; you don’t have to be a netball expert, but if you are, that’s excellent also! The volunteer role has many different aspects to it. This shows there are so many different ways you can help. We are very lucky to work closely with a range of people involved in Jersey Netball – coaches, umpires, performance coaches, youth leads and JETs coaches, other parents and other teams along with partnership organisations.
Since we started the small group of volunteers, we have helped at all sorts of events such as the Halloween tournament – which was a lot of fun with over 100 girls from Years 6-9 with lots of costumes and make-up. Volunteers helped arrange people to score, worked closely with the amazing umpires and of course Wendy, Linda and Mimi to help run the table! We decorated the hall and sorted music to play. It really was so much fun!
We also help with JETs home game weekends. These are also a lot of fun, from setting the court up on Friday evening, to setting tables up for selling drinks and also making fun cakes to sell. We have been instrumental this year in helping with fundraising.
For me, it’s about seeing everyone so happy playing Netball. From young children at events like ‘Train like a JET’, to a charity Netball tournament we held to support a player’s chosen charity, with players from the winter league and also work colleagues and friends playing for fun – that is what drives me. Supporting others to have fun, enjoying sports, being with friends and seeing the results. That makes me happy. Everyone working together for different reasons around netball, playing, supporting, watching, helping -, there is a role for everyone to be involved in the netball family.
We need a bigger team to help keep all these amazing events running, if it’s an hour or a weekend that you could spare to help us, if you want to sell cakes or learn to score or umpire, then please come along and get involved to support Jersey Netball and grow our amazing friendly team.
