With women’s sport in the forefront of peoples minds, netball continues to lead the way as one of the largest female participation team sports played in England with over 1.3 million people taking to the court on a regular basis.
For local Head Coach, Hayley Mackellar, the season has been non stop as she helped guide Severn Stars to sixth place in the National Super League and is now taking a young Scotland side to Trinidad and Tobago for the Youth Commonwealth Games.
Mackellar is Assistant Coach at the Stars, alongside Jo Trip, and the pair are now working locally to provide masterclass lessons to the next generation in an effort to continue the legacy from a successful Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Help fund the future
For the 2023/24 season, Team Beds is looking for companies within the local community in Bedfordshire who are interested in promoting women in sport.
Sponsorship will help support and develop future players, coaches and umpires as well as offering young women and girls the opportunity to train and gain relevant qualifications within the sport.
Team Beds Netball Club, based in Bedfordshire, is a well-established and vibrant England Netball Silver CAPS accredited club.
The club is one of the most successful performance netball clubs in Bedfordshire and was formed in 2011.
In 2018 Hayley and Jo Randall, ex-England Netball physio and Team Manager at Severn Stars, started a second performance club – Team Beds MK, based in North Buckinghamshire; playing in the highly competitive Southern Region.
With 140 members, the club is one of the largest in the area, and both clubs have a dedicated volunteer committee and team of coaches to help run the extensive activity.
Hayley says, “There are so many talented young players coming through, it’s exciting to see so many of them being able to compete across the regions for Team Beds, as well as moving through the pathways at County level and for NSL (Netball Super League) academy franchise teams.
“We want to support these young athletes as much as we can. It’s certainly an exciting time for netball!”
If you are interested in being involved in the future of Team beds Netball or talking to them further, you can contact the Chair of Team Beds, Jo Randall at teambedfordshire@gmail.com.
