Netball’s premier competition, the RACTI Tasmanian Netball League will host its inaugural Pride Round on the weekend of 4th and 5th of June in Southern Tasmania. In a first for the sport, it will publicly demonstrate openness as a competition and promote netball as being a sport for all. Today, a joint press conference was held with Hockey Tasmania, who are also hosting their first Pride Round this weekend, to launch the initiative.
The aim of a collaborative approach is to help reach a wider community with the message of support and acceptance. CEO of Hockey Tasmania, Damien Smith and Working It Out Learning Manager, Olivia Hogarth, joined Netball Tasmania’s CEO Mitch Coulson to discuss the benefits of hosting a Pride Round during June, which is Pride Month.
“The partnership of the launch between hockey, netball and Working It Out really relates to the importance of the topic to both codes and working together to amplify the message and present a unified front on something that is holistically important across the broader community” Coulson says.
“Netball is really excited to be here today and for what lies ahead of us for Pride Month. For the netball community, this is a great initiative and one that I’m personally excited to be involved in along with the Netball Tasmania staff and wider cohort of team staff and athletes. We’re looking forward to what the next month holds in terms of promoting inclusion and diversity within our sport.”
For visibility, netball athletes will be wearing rainbow positional bibs and matching hair ribbon. Umpiring officials will have rainbow wristbands, and team and score bench staff will be in pride pins in all matches held in Round 13 and 14 to help spread the message of inclusivity and that Everyone Can Play.
On the topic of athletes from various sports being ambassadors for inclusivity, Hogarth says “It’s really important that high profile sporting representatives, both as ally’s and members of the LGBTQIA+ community themselves, speak out to help impact particularly young people as they negotiate their identity through their involvement in sport.”
While this is a weekend of firsts, it will not be the last Pride Round held by Netball Tasmania.
“There’s certainly a case to improve over time, and Netball Tasmania can gather information and a deeper understanding of the playing group and beyond in terms of their position on inclusion. Everyone comes to play with varying life experience, perspective and challenges, so knowing how to best support our people is key to being safer and more inclusive across netball courts and spaces across Tasmania. We hope to expand upon this as Pride Round grows in the years to come with multiple sports involved.”
Netball Tasmania encourages spectators to come along in colourful clothing to show support from the crowd and participate in the round alongside the athletes.
SATURDAY
Karana v Devon 19&U 2:00pm Open 3:30pm KSC 1
Kingston v Cavs 19&U 5:00pm Open 6:30pm KSC 1
Cripps v Hawks 19&U 5:00pm Open 6:30pm KSC 2
SUNDAY
Kingston v Devon 19&U 9:30am Open 11:00am KSC 1
Arrows v Hawks 19&U 9:30am Open 11:00am HNSC 1
Karana v Cavs 19&U 9:30am Open 11:00am HNSC 2
