Amali Powell On Her Love For Netball
[Written by Stephen Wright]
Amali Powell is among a distinguished list of Bermudian athletes who have excelled in multiple sports.
Powell grew up playing netball and basketball and is equally adept on either court, representing Storm and Bermuda Under-16 and Under-21 in netball and attended Wilberforce University in Ohio on a basketball scholarship.
Netball, however, is Powell’s first love.
She started playing the game at age nine and four years later made her senior debut for Storm in the Bermuda Netball Association Winter League.
“I wasn’t that good at netball when I started; I actually wanted to quit!” Powell told Bernews.
“I’m glad I stuck to it because it’s ended up being a sport I love to play.”
Powell played a key role in helping Storm secure second place in the Winter League this season, winning ten of their 12 matches. Their only losses came against eventual champions, Lindo’s Tigers.
“We’re hoping to keep progressing and win the league next season,” said Powell, who plays centre.
“I’m very proud of how the team performed this season. We’ve played together for quite some time and gel well as a team.”
The 26-year-old, who captained Bermuda’s Under-16 and Under-21 netball teams, found that many of her skills on the netball court translated seamlessly to basketball.
She refined her abilities as part of the Charles Peters Wolfpack Hoops programme.
“I pretty much used what I knew from netball to play basketball and competed throughout middle and high school,” Powell said.
“I trained with Charles Peters’ Wolfpack Hoops programme, where I got spotted at one of his clinics by a coach from Wilberforce.
“They offered me a scholarship and the rest is history!”
Adjusting to the demands of college basketball was no easy feat, and Powell admits her introduction to the sport at that level was a trial by fire.
However, through sheer determination, she worked her way up to become captain.
“It was an eye-opener, for sure,” she added. “I felt I was behind some other girls when I first started.
“However, I’m very competitive and worked hard to become part of the starting line-up in my freshman year.
“In my sophomore season we had a new coach, and I had to prove myself again. I kept working hard, though, and enjoyed some success, becoming the first team in the programme’s history to reach our conference national tournament.
“I’d love to play more basketball, but, at the moment, my focus is on netball.”
- This is the tenth in a series of articles in which Bernews is highlighting the island’s netball players.
