Hatch Warren Tigers & Grassroot sports

August is here which means the grassroots sporting season starts again. You already know that we can kit your teams out with all the latest kit and equipment they need for the season, but behind the scenes we are passionate about working with your Club so that it can become better than ever. One of the clubs we have recently supported is the newly formed Hatch Warren Tigers Netball Club.

Kitking uses C+L+U=B philosophy to help clubs become successful. We believe that with the support of the local and sporting community, the right leadership and a clear identity to help unifying the club everyone can feel a sense of belonging. If you add all these components together there are MANY achievements your club will get starting from winning more games to increasing volunteers and members.

Carla Paterson, a PE teacher and founder of the Hatch Warren Tigers Netball Club reached out to KitKing via twitter last year, when she asked the question “Why do PE shorts for female PE teachers not fit right?”. The tweet was picked up by our CEO Dips Patel. Carla & Dips began a conversation. Dips discovered that Carla had an idea of starting a netball club because the nearest one was 20 miles away. Dips, with his grassroots sports knowledge and coaching experience was keen to support her in her ambitions. In February 2021 Dips reached out to Carla to find out where she was at with the idea of forming a club. Carla believed she faced a number of barriers that made her hesitant on starting, her plan was to delay until September. Dips coached her to “get going and get better” and suggested a tester event in May 2021.

Carla started with an idea and a concept and 6 months later she is the proud founder of Hatch Warren Tigers Netball Club which has 100+ girls playing Netball. Carla is building the community with the support of the whole committee and utilising sport as a tool to learn new skills on and off the court. Carla has used the C+L+U=B model, to encourage youngsters to step and lead areas of the club.

 

 

Community

Carla realised it was over 20 miles away from Basingstoke to the nearest junior netball club. It was clear there was an opportunity to create a local community of netball loving girls. She worked with a local school on gaining access to an outdoor and indoor court for the girls to train, as well as advertising the club to local players.

 

Leadership

Carla recruited 7 additional coaches and created a committee of 7 members to run the club on a day to day basis. Alongside that, she encouraged girls from different age groups to take on leadership positions. One example is an U13 player being the newsletter editor. What a great way of engaging with the players, and giving them great experiences that will help them in their future successes.

Unify

Carla worked on the Hatch Warren Tigers brand using Canva. With the support of KitKing and Dips Patel the Tigers are now a Nike netball club. They look and feel amazing and the coaches are hoping this confidence will help them win games this autumn.

Belonging

The Tigers Facebook page is really engaging. You can clearly see the sense of belonging from the players, parents and coaches.

Well done Carla for creating these opportunities for budding young netballers, good luck for the season from everyone here at KitKing.

 

 

Quote From Carla Paterson

‘We are so grateful for the help and support given to us by Dips and the team at KitKing. With their guidance they have helped us to build a foundation and community of young netballers. In only a few short months, our club has grown from an idea on paper to a fully fledged junior netball club! We now have over 100 girls participating, 6 squads ranging from U11 to U16 and recruited 4 development coaches, working towards their level 1 or level 2 UKCC Netball Coaching qualification. We hope to extend this over the coming seasons. With the support of Dips and KitKing, we are now a Nike netball club, which has enabled us to provide our players with their own personalised kit, which has created a fantastic buzz within our community. Players are proud to put on the infamous orange jersey - even outside of the club! We can't thank the team enough and look forward to continuing our club's journey.”