Netball gets $100,000 help from Bluesky Samoa

30 June 2017, 12:00AM

Netball is one of the most traditional sports for girls in Samoa. 

As a sport that originally evolved from basketball, netball has been played locally for as long as one can remember across schools, universities, different age groups and even with mixed and men’s teams. 

It’s one of the major sports played at a grassroots level and with the ramp for the Under 21’s women’s national netball team to travel to Botswanna for the Gaborone Cup, it’s the perfect time to reiterate the great work that Netball as a sport is doing for girls and Samoa as a nation. 

With Romania Ng Lam Pose as the only locally qualified team member for the under 21’s Samoa National team; Netball Samoa’s key objective over the next two years is to recruit an elite squad and attract a larger number of qualified local Samoan players, in readiness for the Netball World Cup in 2019.

This World Cup championship is held every four years and will be hosted next in Liverpool, England. 

On Wednesday, Bluesky announced its official sponsorship of Netball Samoa as Major Sponsor and Local Naming Rights sponsor with the aim of leveraging PR, media, marketing and communications capability to build the Netball Samoa brand and drive a communications campaign in search of additional local talent amongst our girls for the deployment of Netball Samoa’s next World cup team. 

Bluesky presented $70,000 contribution in cash for the year with an in-kind contribution of $30,000 - a total involvement of $100,000 from Bluesky.  

Netball Samoa C.E.O, Rosemarie Esera, and executives acknowledge the challenge of the under 21’s team with only one locally sourced player despite all the girls having Samoan heritage. 

It is their expectation that the new partnership with Bluesky will help shape the Netball Samoa brand and encourage positive perception among our young females and rising netballers. 

“We want young girls to realise that the dream to play for Samoa and make their families proud can become their reality through pathways to Samoa’s National Netball team,” she said. 

The C.E.O emphasised the vital relationship between education and netball. 

“Girls need to be well rounded in school to understand the strategies taught to them, to make quick decisions on the court in order to win in Netball.”

Bluesky being well known for their major sponsorship of the Manu Samoa 7’s, is prepared to expand their sponsorship pillar in sports to include a female dominated sport. 

“We’re excited to back Netball Samoa who engage in much positive work with building self-esteem in our young girls and women; giving them a pathway to sports success but more importantly schooling success. There is also great emphasis on health and exercise and family engagement expanding across our villages and even Savai’I,” said Country Manager Alex Abraham.

 “We’re also keen to tap into Netball Samoa’s community engagement especially for our young girls. We want to better understand how we can support them in their ambitions: from the sporting arena to their education, to their career goals.

We want to encourage girls to understand that sky’s the limit with their dreams. They could be the next National Netball players or the next World cup champions. They could even be champions on the academic front and in their careers. Bluesky wants to be a part of empowering girls with options and pathways to success.”  

Bluesky calls on the community to support Netball Samoa and their efforts in building better awareness of the sport and gaining increased participation. 

TV3 have likewise come on board to assist Bluesky in their sponsorship efforts, by providing coverage of Netball games and competitions in schools and other local competitions like ‘Business House’. 

TV3 will be filming live the Under 21’s women’s national netball Gaborone Cup in Botswana coming up in early July. They will also begin airing a weekly netball show segment dedicated to the sport and highlighting local netball tournaments and events. 

Through Bluesky’s support as Major Sponsor, Netball Samoa also hopes to attract further sponsorship from local companies for continuous and future development.

30 June 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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