Netball — the most popular girls’ sport in Singapore (run by a man)

Interview by Les Tan/Red Sports

Netball is the number one girls’ school sport in Singapore with 233 schools fielding a team in the inter-school championships. There are 330 schools in all that run netball as a Co-Curricular Activity (CCA).

Netball Singapore, the national sports association (NSA) that oversees the game, is one of eight NSAs that received between S$500,000 to S$1.5 million in grant funding from the Singapore Sports Council for the 2010 financial year.

Red Sports caught up with the executive director of Netball Singapore, Cyrus Medora, the man tasked to oversee the development of netball.

Red Sports: Team sports has been singled out as a way of getting Singaporeans bonded and netball is number one among the girls. Any examples of how netball is bringing Singapore together?
Cyrus Medora: We have over 260 schools playing netball, and 233 took part in last year’s inter-school.

In addition, we organise several other events mainly targeted at schools. Because of the sheer numbers in the inter-school, a huge number get knocked out after a few games in their own zone. We then pick all those knocked out in Round 1 and run the M1 Schools Challenge League for them.

The schools also take part in large numbers in our other events like Daisy Tan, Pesta Sukan, Energizer National League and Year End League.

KidzNet too is very active with the younger girls up to Pr 4. About 50 schools have this in their curriculum.

Red Sports: What would you like to highlight as Netball Singapore’s main achievements in the past year?
Cyrus Medora: Participation in our events grew by about 20% over the previous year. we have almost doubled participation rates in about 5 years.

We maintain 6 National squads, and only the Opens team has a full time coach from overseas. All the others are part time coaches who are very passionate about the sport.

We have tried hard to engage our netball community actively, and with the World Championships here in 2011, this would be a great opportunity for us to make netball one of the most played, and most visible of sports in Singapore (ok, after football).

We have been very successful with sponsors and have been very fortunate to make some great ones in Fairprice Foundation, M1, Energizer, Great Eastern, UOB, Contiki, SMRT, SlingHD, Wavehouse, ESPN Star Sports, Asics, Molten and many others. This allows us to do a lot more for netball.

For 2010, we have already put an agreement in place with *SCAPE (at Orchard Rd). we will run a big carnival there on 12th June, and launch weekly netball sessions for the youth and young adults.

Netball is a fun and exciting way to keep fit and make friends, and mixed netball especially has been growing fast. The guys soon realise that netball is a really tough game.

We are also working with the PA to get netball back into 5 CCs this year. Our service providers will be engaged to run regular session for young children, adults, and the elderly.

Red Sports: What are some of the challenges facing you and your team in the year ahead?
Cyrus Medora: Getting our sport more recognisable, more played, more supported, and more sponsored!