Members of University of Brighton Panthers Netball team were in attendance for Media Day .In preparation for their upcoming Varsity event against Sussex on May 1st.
Katie Webb, Darcie Gray and Courtney Imbert-Weekes sat down during their Media Day and discussed how they felt about the match against Sussex.
Darcie started it off on how they are preparing and she said, “It’s been ok, we have only just started training although we train all year round but now we are looking at the team, working on combinations and see where we can go from there.”
In terms of the practice sessions, Katie highlighted their training regime so far, she said, “We train every Monday night from 6:30 to 8, we train with the girls at Eastbourne one week and then the Eastbourne girls come over and train with us at Brighton the following week.”
Looking ahead to their prospective opponent Sussex they were asked on their experience of playing them and any key players they are looking out for.
Katie importantly stated, “We have not played against this Sussex team before and we are not in the same league as them when we go against them in varsity this will be the first time playing them.”
Darcie continued talking about her knowledge about the Sussex team and she said, “It will be a complete and total surprise, we have no tactics we will be going in blind. I know they came third in their league and we know they are pretty decent team, played their 2’s before they were decent as well but we focus on ourselves and what we can do.”
Katie was optimistic on the upcoming challenge and she said, “We are in going very strong in ourselves because we won our league so we feel quite strong and confident but obvious we have not played this Sussex team before since they are a league above us.”
Katie and Darcie mentioned the key positions and players in their squad and how they can beat Sussex. Katie said ,”Our defenders like Darcie, Lily and myself work really together in the circles and we played together first year as well and that area is very strong.”
Darcie highlighted other areas and she said, “We got a new attacking area because few of them are from Freshers but it worked pretty well since we won the league.”
Courtney recently joined the team through the Fresher Fair, described her experience so far and she said, “I love it ! I have slotted right into the team nicely, looking forward to the varsity and I think we are going to win so just focus on the preparation for varsity.”
Katie and Darcie having played one year of Varsity already they reflected on the previous year and noted about the key differences on their preparation.
Katie initially said, “We feel definitely more prepared because last year Falmer and Eastbourne were a mixed team for the whole season then right before varsity we mixed with that team so it was a whole new team and only played with the girls for almost two weeks to a month then we played varsity and won by one point.”
Having won the varsity match last year, Darcie said, “We know the team now and we have something to prove for this year and we’ll see.”
Katie and Darcie also urged anyone interested in joining the team and the sport , they gave details on why you should join.
Katie said, “It’s a good group of girls, you make so many friends from it even if it’s not the competitive side, there’s such a social side to netball as well make friends for the whole university life.”
Lastly Darcie said, “There are four different teams in Netball which includes a development team.”
The Netball team will play their fixture at University of Brighton Meads Sports Hall, Falmer and match starts at 8pm on Wednesday 1st of May.
