Storm Invited To Play Wales U15!
Story: 15 January, 2012 | Words: Storm NC | Photos: Andrew Trenoweth

Storm has been invited to play a friendly against the Welsh National Under 15 team in February.

The club is thrilled to have been asked and is looking forward to the experience of taking a team to play at the Institute of Sport in Cardiff.

The invitation came out of the blue just before Christmas when the club received an email from Wales U15 Head Coach Louisa-Jayne Daniell.

Since then arrangements have been made and the teams will play on Saturday, 18th February at the home of Welsh Netball at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff.

Storm Head Coach David White is excited about the prospect; "We're all delighted to be given the opportunity to take our young players to face the Wales U15 team. It's a real honour for our club and we're going to make sure the players and coaches enjoy the day and the experience of pitting themselves against a National team."

The Welsh players are meeting for a half term training camp and the management team of the U15s approached Carn Brea Storm for a competitive fixture for the squad.

Louisa-Jayne Daniell explains; "Before becoming Wales U15 coach I first became aware of Carn Brea Storm Netball Club when they were awarded Cornwall Junior Club of the Year 2010.

"I was impressed by the online presence of the club through their website, podcasts, youtube videos, facebook and twitter accounts. The club have an amazing professional image and show how even though netball is currently an amateur sport that receives very little media coverage, sponsors and a strong community following can be found.

"This combined with their junior team's high standard of play meant that I was extremely keen for my Wales U15s to play a match against the club and to see the professional manner in which netball clubs can be run."

The Wales U15 National Netball Squad is a new programme set up by the Welsh Netball Association with the aim of preparing young athletes for international netball competition. It now forms an important part of Welsh Netball's High Performance Player Pathway.

The players come from across Wales and are coached by Louisa-Jayne Daniell, assisted by Wendy Lewis and supported by Team manager Tricia Chapman.

The squad train once a month around Wales and work on a programme designed to improve their key skills in movement and passing as well as develop their skills off the court through team building and umpiring sessions.

Finding competition for this newly formed national team is difficult as there is currently no equivalent U15 national team from Scotland, Northern Ireland or England. Instead the team look to strong junior club teams as well as some adult teams to provide competitive matches.

Storm will be running a supporters coach to the game which has been funded by Andrew and Mike Trenoweth from KHK Media, one of the club's long term sponsors and suppliers of all Storm's photography.

"Andrew and his Dad Mike stepped in to fund the coach as soon as we knew we'd be going," said David White. "Andrew has been a tremendous supporter of the club and I know he's as excited as we all are to be making the trip to Cardiff!"

The match will take place at 11am on Saturday 18th February at the Welsh Institute of Sport at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. If you're interested in coming along on the coach to support the team please contact us as soon as possible.