A local Raglan netballer got the chance to get up close to the thrilling on-court action at the July 9, ANZ Premiership match, as she stood side by side with Magic captain Samantha Sinclair and Steel captain Wendy Frew in front of a stadium of fans.
Winning the ANZ Future Captains competition, ten-year-old Kowhai-Pearl Rumbal, joined by friend Tiari Gibson, also ten, had the opportunity to meet the team captains and lead the teams out onto centre court at the start of the match.
Kowhai-Pearl attends Raglan Area School and has been playing netball for three years. She broke her arm at the beginning of the season and is excited to get back into netball. One day she hopes to play for her favourite team, the Magic.
“I loved watching how the Magic play and how they strategise. Casey Kopua is my favourite player because she plays goal defence, which is my position too, and I feel like I can learn a lot from her.”
ANZ Head of Sponsorship Sue McGregor says ANZ is passionate about supporting netball at all levels, from the players out there practising every weekend, to top-level athletes in the ANZ Premiership.
“That’s why we’re giving 94 children from around New Zealand the chance to be a Future Captain and meet their sporting heroes at each of the ANZ Premiership matches this season.
“We’re so pleased we’re able to offer this once in a lifetime opportunity to young Kiwis and hope that offering them the chance to meet their heroes and stand on centre court at the start of the match will help inspire them to keep training hard and achieve their goals.”
The match saw the Steel beat the Magic by 76-60 goals.
