Confidence didn’t always come easy for Tahlia Bennett.

Part of a busy sporting family and out and about most weekends across the year, Tahlia admits she had always been a little on the shy side in many aspects of life.

After many years enjoying the health and social benefits of playing netball, it wasn’t until she stepped into Netball WA’s Green Shirt program that she started to really come out of her shell.

Today, Tahlia’s climbing WA’s local netball ranks while continuing to grow her confidence off the court.

Starting out as a local umpire with Southern Districts Netball Association, the Green Shirt program has helped her graduate to Western Australia Netball League duties – even travelling to Melbourne recently as a WA umpire for the Under 16s National Carnival.

For Tahlia, it’s the thrill of the game and netball’s unique community environment that inspires her to keep developing her skills and confidence.

“I love Southern Districts on the weekends – it’s like another family to me and I have lots of netball mums who look after me,” Tahlia said.

“Playing and umpiring netball gives you the motivation to get up and get out – it brings you out of your shell and makes you more confident.”

Clearly, Netball WA’s Green Shirt Program not only develops local young people as future umpires, it also helps them build confidence in other areas of life.

Kleenheat and Netball WA: a proud local partnership

Kleenheat’s long history supporting the local sporting community means our partnership with Netball WA is a natural fit and an exciting opportunity to back a program making a real difference to young people.

We like to think our local partnership with Netball WA delivers significant support for an essential and often-overlooked area of the sport.

“I think umpires get overlooked a lot, so it’s great to have the support of businesses like Kleenheat to help inspire the next generation of umpires,” Tahlia said.

In 2018, Kleenheat was proud to support Netball WA’s Green Shirt program, a valuable grassroots initiative helping to develop outstanding umpires – and people – at all levels of the game.