Netball

Netball is a national pastime, primarily for women, in New Zealand.  There are few male netball players (in fact, I haven't seen any but I'm told they do exist).  Netball is related closely to basketball but is completely different.

One cannot not dribble in netball, there is no backboard, the hoop is smaller, the shooter (GS: Goal Shooter) must be given 3 feet clearance making it difficult to defend a shot, you cannot successfully shoot a netball like a basketball...the list goes on.

Molly is on one of the four Year 9 netball teams (Columba has not less than 22 netball teams, not counting the social teams).  She managed to stop dribbling after the first couple of games and is developing into quite a good netball player, particularly at the Goal Attack (GA) position where she uses her basketball skills to create a high number of assists.

Molly does well at netball, even against taller players.

Molly shoots . . . 

(Notice the basketball followthrough. She is an unconventional shooter.)

. . . its up . . . 

SCORE!!

Molly on the assist.

Molly's team celebrates a victory.

Here are some older girls playing.  I think they were one of the University of Otago teams. 

Historically, netball was derived from basketball.  However, basketball is a 'red-headed stepchild' here (no offense to any stepchildren or ginger-maned readers).  This is particularly a disadvantage being from Indiana.  How bad is it?  I am a basketball coach at Columba.

No, seriously.