Mid Canterbury Netball’s new president Ange Mitchell. Photo supplied.Giving back to netball and the community.

These are the driving forces for Ange Mitchell as she steps up to take over the reins of Mid Canterbury Netball.

Any doubts she may have had over her readiness for such a responsibility were outweighed by her passion for the sport and how her home region fostered it during the early years growing up in Mayfield.

“I loved my time playing in Ashburton and Mid Canterbury,” she said.

“This is where my passion for netball started.

“It’s really exciting to be able to give back to the place where you grew up and found the sport.”

With a comprehensive netballing background underlined by a 13-year elite level playing career, the 43-year-old appears to be the ideal candidate to step into the role.

Her love for the game guided her to the upper echelon as a five cap Silver Fern in the early 2000s.

“Looking back and seeing where I ended up, I would never have dreamed that.

“It’s pretty cool to think that someone from here can go on and follow their dreams.”

Further to her revered credentials as a player, Mitchell has had numerous coaching stints, mainly at secondary school level and is now a teacher at Ashburton College.

Although coaching at secondary school level was a natural fit for someone who was a school teacher by trade, there were more personal reasons as to why coaching at the level held appeal.

“I really enjoyed it (coaching),” she said.

“I coached at that level because that was where some of my best memories were from.

“At that time, playing for Ashburton College and Mid Canterbury and going to tournaments.”

Now the mother of two has gone full circle with local netball.

She first joined the Mid Canterbury Netball board in 2019, before being appointed president of the organisaton at the end of last year following the departure of Karla Newlands.

‘It’s a big responsibility and its a role that you don’t take on lightly,” she said.

“Karla had a chat to me about it.

“You can always look back and think I would’ve like some more experience before I took over but I’m someone who grabs opportunities that I think I could be good at, or I’m passionate about.

“This seems like a great way to give back to netball and our community.”

Although she admitted that Newlands was a “very hard act to follow”, the slightest apprehension swiftly evolved to excitement.

As far as her post-playing aspirations back in the day, game administration was not something which had piqued her interests.

Her four seasons with the Otago Rebels however introduced a new side to the sport which she had not previously encountered.

“Playing down there I became one of the ‘older’ players compared to Canterbury when I was quite young.

“I ended up captaining Otago, so I took on more of that leadership role and that space between the team and the coaches, managers, board, sponsors and administrators.

“Taking on those opportunities which allows you to grow and to see more sides of the game.”

She also worked as a netball development officer at Sport Otago, accentuating her broad knowledge base.

While Mitchell’s high performance insights were invaluable for Mid Canterbury Netball, it an ability to “connect people” following leadership roles and now as the Social Science Head of Faculty at AshColl which were equally significant, she believed.

“Community” has also been a term bandied around at the top office with Netball New Zealand eager to position netball within a community context as a key strategic focus.

“Things are changing in netball,” Mitchell said.

“I think its continuing to grow and develop.”

“A lot of that driven by Netball New Zealand.

“But as a Mid Canterbury Netball team we really want to meet the needs of our community and continue to offer them different experiences in netball.

“It’s an exciting time.”

By Adam Burns © The Ashburton Guardian -  February 2021