By Tara Murray
Glen Orden continues to focus on getting the basics right in the Western Netball League competition.
After all six teams made grand finals last season, including winning five premierships, the Hawks program has continued to grow.
Hawks coach Rebecca Hicks said the momentum continues to build at the club.
“We’ve got seven teams this year, last year we had six,” she said. “This year we have increased off the back of the success we had last year.
“A lot more players have gravitated towards us, so I’ve had to put in another team, our division 7 team. Overall I think we are tracking well.
“The quality of players we have this year is a lot higher than what we had last year and I’ve actually had to reshuffle my teams quite a bit.
“It’s very exciting this year with how we are tracking and what we’ve been putting out on court the last few weeks.”
Hicks said for the club to be attracting so many players was really exciting and it showed how far it had come in the past few years.
She said a lot had changed.
“Culture is a big thing for us on and off the court,” she said. “Behind the scenes I’ve worked really hard to put a team together to help me create something special.
“To see everyone want to come and be a part of that, it’s very exciting and very grateful that everyone has seen us now.
“For us it was about building a better culture, building a club that everyone wants to be part of and our kids will hopefully grow up and play for the same club that we all played for.”
Hicks, a star shooter of the competition since it began, had been focused on just coaching this year, but has returned to the court after some injuries and unavailabilities.
After six grand finals last season, the Hawks are just focusing on what they do best.
Their top side is again one of the teams to beat in division 1.
“I think for us, we focus a lot on the basics,” Hicks said.
“We play simple netball. We train the girls very hard and drill the basics into them.
“I always say basics will win you games, you don’t have to play fancy netball to win.
“To do the basics right we are going to reap the rewards at the end of the season, so for us doing the basics right and making sure we have the right coaches coaching these girls is important.
“My coaching staff are amazing and all on the same page and all want the same things out of this season, which is very good.”
