SAPPHIRES NETBALL CLUB
History
Club History Sapphires Netball Club is one of the few remaining founding clubs of the Elizabeth Netball Association and was established on the 14th February 1967 at a meeting held at the home of Mr V.K. Lethbridge. It was moved that at this meeting that a new club be formed and be affiliated with the newly formed Elizabeth Womens Basketball Association, previously called the Elizabeth United Church Girls Basketball Association but known today as the Elizabeth Netball Association.
Previously known as the Sapphires Basketball Club, the name was changed to Sapphires Netball Club at its Annual General Meeting in 1971.
From the beginning, the club grew to have 14 teams in Winter 1976, 16 teams in the Summer of 1978/79 and a maximum of 18 teams entered in the 1979 and 1980 Winter seasons. The club enjoyed significant on-court success in both seniors and juniors during the late 1970s and much of the 1980s. Sapphires was an extremely successful club having won the A1 division at the Mildura Carnival which rounded of a season in which 13 teams played in the Elizabeth Netball Association grand finals with 8 teams taking out premiership's. Successful teams were Senior A2, B1, Junior A, B, C, D and Sub-junior G1 and H1. The clubs F1 and H1 teams also won their sections of the South Australian Netball
Association (SANA) gala carnival. In 1980 the club changed its uniform to a pleated royal blue skirt and white t-shirt.
Sapphires hit the big league in 1985, after winning the A2 division in SANA Sapphires earned a spot in the A1 division, now recognised as the State League. The team was coached by Maureen Chandler who was best known as an All-Australian umpire. A newspaper article was published to celebrate the occasion.
From 1992 through to 1994 Sapphires had A grade teams competing in the SA Districts competition and were highly succesful. In the late 1990s the club changed the design of the uniform again by incorporating a white polo shirt with splashes of royal blue and a royal blue para-silk skirt.
From 2000 - 2004 we had a steady decline in membership which unfortunately resulted in just 6 teams in competition. At a committee meeting in 2005, it was moved that the club needed to take a new direction. To keep up with the changing times a bodysuitstyle uniform was introduced and in keeping with tradition we kept the royal blue and white colours but we now have a splash of teal. We have also introduced a warm up top, matching jacket and club socks.
The club became incorporated in 2006 and introduced a website and a club logo. We had 11 teams in competition in 2006. Sapphires won a radio competition for a $5500 sponsorship from Paradise Foods, in addition we received a personal training session with Australian goal shooter, Catherine Cox.
In 2007 we celebrated our 40th anniversary. 2007 was a successful year for us, in the Winter season our 13C were premiers with the 15B team finishing Runner up. The 2007 Summer season was equally as successful, out 15A team were premiers with the 13A team finishing Runner up.
The club has grown to a massive 20 teams, with over 150 players since 2009 and remain as one of the largest clubs at ENA. Great success in 2009 taking 4 premierships and another 4 premierships in 2010. A range of merchandise was introduced in 2009 - caps, drink bottles, umbrella's and sock's. We continued our success throughout 2010 and 2011. We changed our uniform supplier to JS Sports, and made some minor modifications to the uniform design. We also introduced hoodies to our uniform range. In 2012 we celebrate our 45th anniversary. We introduced a new uniform, the modern style A-line dress in our traditionl colour of royal blue along with cyan and magenta. We also introduced a new club logo to enhance our image. We bring on board two new sponsors, Sports Power and JS Sports. The club has achieved STARCLUB status under the Office for Recreation and Sport Club Development Program as well as receiving a $5000 sporting grant from the Office for Recreation and Sport. We had yet another succesful season in Winter 2012, winning 4 premierships in the 13C, 15C, 15B and C grade. 6 teams in total competing in grand finals. We also were fortunate to receive an appearance from the Thunderbirds goal shooter Carla Borengo at one of our training sessions.