Sport
27 September, 2021
Surprise visit for budding young local netballers
St Monica’s School Year 5 and 6 students had no idea professional netball players Laura Scherian and Ashlee Unie from the Sunshine Coast Lightning would be making a special visit when they began a routine training session on Thursday.
Laura and Ashlee travelled from their base at the Sunshine Coast to run a clinic with the students and give them a few freebies from their club.
Both women play netball as part of the national Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) League with Laura also chosen as a member of the Australian Diamonds squad in 2019.
St Monica’s School netball coordinator and Year 4 teacher Kaylene Bruggemann said the students have just started playing netball this year.
She said the young girls have taken to the sport and are slowly building their skills.
Ms Bruggemann said as a reward for their hard work she contacted the Lightning hoping that they would send some merchandise or balls for the students.
“I was shocked when they said they could send some players down to meet the girls. I really didn’t expect that,” she said.
Ms Bruggemann said she didn’t let on to the students that they players were coming and made it a complete surprise.
Year 6 students Chloe and Abby said, while they had no idea the players were coming, they had a feeling something special was going to happen.
“We were cheering and we turned around and they were there,” Chloe said.
“We watched videos in the classroom and we learnt about everyone in the team so we knew a bit about them.”
Abby said having the players conduct a clinic at the school has made her more enthused to continue playing netball outside primary school.
“I’m thinking of playing for my high school after I finish here,” she said.
“I really enjoy it.”
Both girls agree that the clinic helped them develop their playing skills.
They said Laura and Ashlee gave them heaps of advice to improve their defensive skills.
