Serena Guthrie talks to Camilla Buchanan through Sky Sports documentary ‘Netball: Black Roses’, available on request
“Making myself accessible now as a role model, as a black athlete, is very important. If I hadn’t seen these athletes in that environment, I probably wouldn’t have been fight for it. “
Serena Guthrie, co-captain of Vitality Roses, is well aware of the situation she is in, both as a networker and as a black sportsman.
The midfielder made her international debut at the age of 18 and has been a key part of the national team’s success ever since. She led England at the Vitality Netball World Cup in 2019 and won gold with the team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
“When you say, what was my motivation? That was what was all around me at the time,” Guthrie tells Camilla Buchanan in the documentary ‘Netball: Black Roses’ on Sky Sports.
“If I saw it, then for me it’s reasonable and it’s something I can do.
“That’s where the environments in which young athletes are introduced are so important, because if you physically see what people are doing, it makes you think if they can do it. , maybe I can too. “
If you see it, you can believe it and you can accomplish it. I think the more black representation we have over sport, not just sport in all industries, the more we will be leaders tomorrow.
Eboni Usoro-Brown
Another regular member of the Roses team, Jodie Gibson, also remembers the importance of her predecessors in the England dress, and shared how these women inspired her to succeed.
“I used to sit up at night and watch netball,” Gibson said. “It used to be around 3am in the morning and I used to be excited when I saw the likes of Pamela Cookey, Amanda Newton, Sonia Mkoloma on the court just doing it.
“I will never forget going to Manchester Arena to watch my first netball game and just hearing Sonia’s sound on that court, asking what she wanted from her players.
“I remember thinking I wanted to be like that, and I wanted to play like her on that court.”
I am proud to be black and an athlete. When I was a little girl, watching TV and I saw Geva [Mentor], I wanted to be like her. It’s great for people who might share the same skin color as me, watching up on TV and watching productions in sports, seeing us play professional sports, and desire to be so.
Razia Quashie (Image credit: Ben Lumley)
Two of the role models Gibson mentions – Newton and Mkoloma – teamed up with Buchanan for the documentary ‘Netball: Black Roses’ to share more about their own playing days.
Newton first represented England in 1996 and went on to lead the national side as captain, reaching Mkoloma’s first captain in 1999. Between them, there are more than 200 international appearances. women and both held more than ten years in both international positions.
Newton and Mkoloma are widely known to be two of the most powerful Roses in England, and when each reached the national establishment, they had a strong desire to lead change and move the sport forward.
Amanda Newton and Sonia Mkoloma were furious on the court and none of them were afraid to speak from the court
“I think it was about making England Netball at the time, more aware of the diversity that was within their team,” Mkoloma said. coming into it in the early days, e [that awareness] they were not there.
“This platform was of just plain, boiled chicken because that’s what everyone eats and we’ve come in as West Indian girls saying we needed on salt and pepper, seasoning and which we did not agree with.
“That was a small thing and even with the white girls on the team, it was about teaching them about our culture as well. There were a lot of them that we didn’t know about our culture, our hair for example.
“I used to cut hair, curl hair, braid, knit … here and there. They didn’t know about this. I’m not the one someone can come to. up and say, can I rub your hair?
“If they did, I’d say they couldn’t do or say that. I was never afraid to stand up for myself or if I felt like someone else was doing it hard because of the culture , the background, or anything like that. “
Newton shared Mkoloma’s intention of pulling people up on their behavior. She wasn’t, and isn’t, someone to let things slip.
“I always talk about something, if something isn’t okay,” she said.
“You’re offending me, but maybe there’s someone else not as strong as me who is also getting offended, and you don’t know what might happen next. They may not to be around that environment, they might withdraw from it. So we challenged your stuff. “
There are voices and your voice to be heard, something that is still important to the Roses that have followed in the footsteps of Newton and Mkoloma.
During England’s trial series in New Zealand last year, the squad made their position clear on the court as they shouted at each other as a man against racism and social injustice.
0:24 Vitality Roses England decided to take a knee before the opening test in New Zealand
“We wanted to do something to show our support,” Guthrie said.
“We hadn’t been on TV for a while because of COVID, so we wanted to make sure we were putting in the right messages saying that we stand for something and don’t accept it in a larger web ball. “
At the time, Laura Malcolm had spoken powerfully about her own experiences of miniatures she had witnessed during her lifetime. She also spoke strongly about her thoughts as a young girl about wanting to change the color of her skin.
From a young age I wanted to be white and at that age I didn’t understand why I wanted to be white. I was so sad about my hair, I was crying about it and I talked about this with my brother recently. You just think [now], that’s crazy – how I felt. I probably didn’t know at the time why I was feeling that way.
Laura Chaluim
When it came to the day of the England game in New Zealand, Malcolm had been one of the players to take forward England’s actions by standing and meeting in court.
That unity show was repeated when they played their first game back on English soil, in Loughborough against Vitality Netball Superleague All Stars.
“We knew it was a time when we had to make sure we used our voices as players to represent something that was important to us,” said Malcolm of kneeling in New Zealand.
“There was no doubt about whether we were going to do it or not, it was more about when we were going to do it. For me personally, it was a very powerful time. It felt powerful inside us. I was. I’m glad we did. “
The Sky Sports the documentary ‘Netball: Black Roses’ is now available On Demand via Sky and NOW TV.