Claire Brownie is back in Scotland for one reason and one reason only - to win.
The Scottish netball captain has spent the past two years plying her trade south of the Border at Team Bath but the opportunity to return home proved too much for her to resist.
Almost exactly one year ago the idea for a professional Scottish netball team was touted. Despite the numerous obstacles, Netball Scotland made it happen and this evening Sirens will make their debut in the Vitality Netball Superleague when they take on Wasps at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
However, the mere formation of a Scottish team was not a strong enough pull for Brownie, who is originally from Aberdeenshire.
She was adamant that she would only return to her home country if she had a chance of ending the season as Superleague champion.
Fortunately, Sirens matched her ambition and so Brownie had little hesitation in pledging her future to the club.
“I would never have moved to Sirens if I didn’t think the team could do well,” she says. “I want to win the league so I only want to play for a team that can challenge right at the top.
"It was a tough decision to leave Bath but I knew that Sirens were going to be able to compete for the league title and being a Scottish Thistle, getting the chance to represent a team that was based in Scotland was a big pull for me.”
Brownie has been awarded the captaincy of Sirens but she is by no means the only star name. There are numerous Scottish internationalists but it is the team’s imports who illustrate quite how lofty Sirens’ ambitions are.
Carla Borrego is a Jamaican World Championship bronze medallist, Ellen Halpenny is a New Zealander who won silver at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and Nicole Aiken Pinnock was part of the Jamaican team which won bronze at Glasgow 2014.
Despite the overseas players joining up with the squad only a matter of weeks ago, Brownie is delighted at the speed with which they have settled in.
“We’ve really gelled as a squad and it’s a real credit to the girls how well they’ve fitted in,” she says. “It’s so important to get on well as a team. In netball, you depend on every single player- you can’t carry anyone and one percent here and there can make a significant difference so it’s great that we’re such a close-knit group.
"Our entire squad of 12 is very strong which is so important and I have no doubt that everyone is up to the challenge.”
Before a ball has even been thrown, Sirens are already making a real impact. Their league opener tonight is a 4,000-seat sell-out and Brownie is confident that over the course of this league season, Sirens can work wonders in terms of raising the profile of netball in this country as well as giving a much needed boost to women’s sport.
“In recent years, there’s been a massive increase in the number of people playing netball in Scotland and hopefully that can continue to grow,” she says.
“There was a massive increase in participation after Glasgow 2014 but that was only a one-off event so since Sirens will be playing week in, week out, we can hopefully build on that again. We want families to come and watch- young boys as well as young girls - and we want to build a loyal fan-base who come to support us regularly.”
The importance of role models can sometimes be overstated within sport but it is impossible to argue that Sirens are likely to inspire a legion of young girls.
‘You can’t be what you can’t see’ is an oft-repeated aphorism but it is hard to dispute that Sirens will demonstrate to an entire generation that becoming a professional netballer in Scotland is now a realistic goal and this is something that Brownie is fully aware of.
“I think the fact that young girls can now see that you can make a career out of the sport is really important because it’s never been like this before,” she says.
“All you need is for kids to dream but for that to happen, they need to see what is possible. So hopefully our matches make young girls want to be a part of this themselves one day.”
Sirens v Wasps from the Emirates Arena, Glasgow will be live on Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports Mix this evening. Match starts at 7.45 pm.
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