Netball Leadership

The Governance Battle

The United States has its fair share of issues with the development of netball since the sport began fomenting in the U.S. sporting arena. Netball is historically known to have a large following from the Caribbean, European, Asian and Oceanic nationals and has recently became more diversified, but the sport continues to struggle for traction in America. 

The American Netball Association (ANA), Bronx Netball Association, and parties from Florida were successful in laying the platform for netball development and inadvertently birth the USA Netball Association, the governing body for the sport in the U.S. The United States of American Netball Association formerly (USANA), recently selected its team of executives to serve for the next two years to enhance and cultivate support from key institutions, individuals and netball optimists. Despite the lack of support from memberships and affiliations, USA Netball has done some remarkable work with the sport; most recently taking home 3rd place at the 2014 AFNA Qualifiers and with its coaching and umpiring programs designed to foster a pool of highly skilled top level officials to maximize game performance, and secure a role in the restructuring of the association to elevate the sport.  

USA Netball never left the front line of netball development. The work is being done in a way that does not accommodate the insatiable appetite for information from the netball community, but people are curious and want to know the state of the sport. They are in-search of guidance to their needs as concern participants. However, transparency has not been an attribute of the association. The new executives are aware of this long standing stigma that must be dealt with if the intention is to reconnect the dots and frame a new communication path with netballers.

The battle for governance recognition has also steered the lack of transparency deeper for USA Netball. The association has been challenged for the leadership role due to its silent management style. USA Netball draws on people’s knowledge and skills, while emphasizing the importance of team work and helping to connect people to each other rather than looking for recognition, praise and attention. This Democratic style of governance may misguide many to think that the association isn’t moving towards shared dreams and “making busy” seems like things are not getting done. While the Pacesetting style of governance sets high standards for performance and is obsess with doing things faster and better, netballers must take heed because this could also lead to diminishing morales and ethics and is poisonous for the netball climate with the “win at all costs” attitude. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves”. —Lao Tzu. 

Today, USA Netball is still the most powerful force carrying on the netball agenda in America while standing on one leg. To have survived the many ebbs and flows of the business and still find successes when only failure lurks should exemplify the strength of the mother ship. If there is any entity that would rightfully claim “governance” it should be ones that have done the grass root work and have been in the trenches with many of the associations when they needed it most. 

Associations such as the Caribbean American Netball Association, Florida Netball Association and Georgia Netball Association, and even Netball Youth Sport Association are elite contenders. They have done the work and solidify their causes. These are the key players in the development of netball and have helped to cement the sport into the American communities which have transcended internationally. Over the years many relationships have gone sour because we have a kitchen filled with cooks and not many servers. Needless to say our lack of unity has led to the invasion of intruders who believe more so than we do that we need another leader. 

While this may be true, many have yet to ask the question “why”? So let me take you back. When an emerging entity enters the market, it is by all means necessary that they must seek survival. They must capture as much shares of the market that they enter, which means they will come after your share. There are many strategies being implemented to ensure that annual market share increase each year. While it’s much harder to focus in un-tapped areas, the guerrilla marketing strategy is the new entity way of doing busines and it is quite unconventional. They “pop-up” everywhere their target group is, use “issues” to draw attention, such as challenging and wanting governance. This gives them the attention to carry out their plan to popularize them-self.

Leaders lead from where they stand, they do not challenge for leadership, they earn it. They earn it by cementing ties with your history. They follow the people, they define reality, and most importantly they produce more leaders. The governing body for the sport of netball in the United States of America is USA Netball. They have lifted up the sport and its people, saw hope for the sport and has translated a vision into reality. This new executive is ready to bridge the gap in communication and rally men and women in the sport to focus on the common purpose, “Netball”.  

“A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible”. —Polybius 

Netball Brooklyn.