Maureen Sinclair helped grow Mosman Netball Club from five to 50-strong teams, setting generations of girls up for success.
Maureen Sinclair was just ten years old when she discovered a passion that was to last a lifetime, as a player, netball mum, volunteer, coach and president of Northern Suburbs Netball Association.
Revelling in the outdoorsy lifestyle that goes hand-in-hand with growing up in Manly, Maureen soon realised that visiting the local netball courts was a sure-fire way to socialise. “What I loved most about the game was the endless source of friends it provided, which I have retained over many years,” Maureen tells North Shore Living. She began playing netball in the Manly Warringah competition before moving to Mosman when she married.
Once her two daughters were old enough to be introduced to sport, it was ‘always going to be netball,’ laughs Maureen. “I enquired locally and there were only four or five teams who competed in the Northern Suburbs Competition, with the small Mosman Netball Club, established in 1988, not extending past primary school.”
Just two years later, Maureen was asked to run the club, turning her love of the game into something more. “I approached all the local schools to join as we only had girls from Mosman Public School. I designed flyers for the next season and dropped them off at the local schools, Military Road shops and even set up a table at Bridgepoint to enrol as many as possible,” says Maureen.
Despite these sterling efforts, it was not the most auspicious of starts. “We had five grass netball courts at the back of Rawson Oval, which were not only soggy for most of the season, but dogs were able to run all over the courts dropping what dogs do!” laughs Maureen. But teething problems proved no match for her drive and dedication, and the club swiftly swelled in numbers, with her tasks swelling alongside it. “I had done it alone for six years and was everything except the treasurer. Whatever needed to be done – selector, umpire’s convenor, coach, events co-ordinator – I seemed to find time to do,” she says.
News of the success of the club spread and Maureen’s weekends – and garage – were soon crammed full with netballs. “The club was growing at such a rate that I coerced parents into becoming coaches. I wasn’t looking for professional coaches, just like-minded people who were willing to make sure the girls were having fun,” says Maureen.
By the end of 1999, just as the club had exploded to 20 teams, an unwelcome phone call from council threatened to put a damper on the new season. “Council confirmed it was taking back the netball courts to be used as open space,” says Maureen. The next decade was spent desperately trying to secure courts, eventually landing on the Rawson Park courts.
It is clear it was worth every effort, for both Maureen and the hundreds of girls that have learnt life lessons on the courts. Team sports are ‘essential’ to our growing children, teaching them the ‘value of sharing and collaboration,’ says Maureen. “It’s very interesting to watch young girls begin netball and see them grow into adults sharing the ability to co-operate with each other on the netball court.”
Today, the club has more than 600 members across 50 teams, from seniors, to the seven-to-nine year olds who play in the popular Net Set Go program.
Maureen has more than lived up to her pledge to be ‘all about community,’ volunteering not only in the netball world for decades, but also at her son’s cricket club and cub scout group. After passing on the Mosman Netball Club mantle in 2000, she joined Northern Suburbs Netball Association for 12 years, holding many positions including president, but nothing could keep her off the courts she discovered as a young girl.
“I am now back where I first began, coaching a team of eleven-year-olds, and it has invigorated me once again. The joy of encouraging them to soak up the team-spirit is priceless,” says this valuable volunteering veteran who has changed the face of North Shore netball for girls of the past, present and future.
By Catherine Lewis