S’pore’s Naeya Chandra Sanders looks forward to Netball World Youth Cup after late age-group call-up

SINGAPORE – Netball has been a constant in Naeya Chandra Sanders’ life since she picked up the sport in primary school, but being part of the national set-up was never a thought that crossed her mind.

That was until 2023, when Kok Mun Wai, who coached Sanders at CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh) and her club Fier Orcas, encouraged her to go for trials for the national Under-19 squad. She was subsequently selected.

While it was her first experience in the national age groups, it changed her mindset towards competitive netball and fuelled her ambition in the sport.

After being part of the Singapore Under-21 squad who lifted the Asian Youth Netball Championship title in July, she is looking forward to her next outing at the Sept 19-28 Netball World Youth Cup in Gibraltar.

The 19-year-old, who plays wing defence, centre and goal defence, said: “It’s a really big thing for me because I don’t think I ever planned to play netball at such a high level...

“I never expected myself to play at this level, so it’s a really exciting thing to see how far I’ve come.”

Growing up, Sanders was exposed to many different sports.

She dabbled in swimming and jiu-jitsu, and also played basketball with her father, an American former college basketballer who moved here after meeting her Singaporean mother during a layover en route to a Middle East army tour.

But her parents gave her the freedom to explore her own interests, and netball was the sport that appealed the most to her.

The Temasek Polytechnic student said: “A really big thing for me is that this sport has helped me with self-improvement.

“Another really big thing is the people I play with, so that would be another reason why I’m so connected to the sport because I’ve made so many good friends from it, people who want to see me do better.

“It has made me a lot more resilient as a person. We’ve played competitions like Asian Youth, we’ve gone to Fiji, Australia to play and these are all really daunting things and it’s normal to feel anxiety, but you also have to be able to counter it.”

Resilience has been crucial for Sanders, who suffered two stress fractures in her spine after a fall during the annual Polytechnic-Institute of Technical Education Games last October.

She realised something was wrong when she suddenly experienced excruciating pain in her legs when she was just walking around in her house. After a visit to the doctor, she was placed on a five-month rehabilitation programme.

That took both a mental and physical toll on her. While others around her were going about their lives, she felt stuck and worried about whether she would be able to come back from the injury.

But the support of her friends and family helped her through the difficult period, with Sanders recalling how instead of taking a train to dinner after training, her teammates would walk with her as walking was an important part of her rehabilitation.

She returned to the court in February and is now relishing the chance to play at the World Youth Cup, where Singapore will face four-time winners Australia, Samoa, Scotland and Northern Ireland in Pool B.

“We just want to improve from Asian Youth, just performance-wise we want to get better. We train every day, we train so hard and our coaches put so much time into moulding us into better players, so we want to get better,” said Sanders, who will also play in November’s Singlife Nations Cup.

“We’re really excited to take on new challenges together and the best part about team sport is that you’re never really alone and because we’re going into this together.

“There’s a bit more excitement to it, we get to tackle things together and bond over it.”

With some tough fixtures coming up in Gibraltar, Singapore U-21s coach Yeo Mee Hong wants to see her charges put up good performances and gritty displays in each game.

She said: “(I want the team to) step up the challenge at the global stage, adapt to each team’s different playing styles, demonstrate good teamwork and fighting spirit in the group matches. We hope to adjust tactics efficiently and stick to the game plan in each game.

“The team has trained very hard to be disciplined with consistency of play. We want to improve the individual and team performances by creating purposeful drives towards the ball, limiting mistakes and focusing on converting our own centre passes.”