She first dabbled a tentative toe into the sport at just eight years old, and has been hooked ever since.
Goal Shoot for her team at Maori Hill School in Dunedin, the talented youngster practices her shooting each evening, until her mother has to drag her inside to do her homework and get ready for bed
Goal Shoot for her team at Maori Hill School in Dunedin, the talented youngster practices her shooting each evening, until her mother has to drag her inside to do her homework and get ready for bed.
With such dedication, she’s already showing great promise. Tall for her age, she is part of a junior Netball academy, and this year was selected for Dunedin Netball’s development programme. The future is looking bright for Chloe, who is tirelessly working towards her dreams. “I’m going to get into the Southern Steel, and then I will get into the Silver Ferns. And when I retire from netball, I’m going to be a school coach,” she says, confidently.
So when the opportunity came up to win her dream room makeover in a competition featured in the Weekly, what Chloe had envisioned came as no surprise.
Netballs, hoops, and posters of her favourite players made up the masterpiece in her mind. And of course, like many girls her age, the colour pink was a reccurring theme.
The night before the winner of the competition – held in conjunction with Choice TV’s My Dream Kids’ Room was announced, Chloe couldn’t sleep.
“I just kept thinking, ‘If I don’t get this I’ll be devastated!” she recalls. Fortunately though, the phone rang the following day with the news she’d been hoping for. “I couldn’t stop jumping around the house. My parents were really excited – I actually think my mum was more excited than me!”
Several weeks down the track and after numerous nights spent sleeping in the lounge, Chloe’s room was ready.
“It’s awesome! I had a single bed before, and my room was really boring,” she says. “Now I have a bunk bed and all new furniture and a sparkly pink feature wall.”
And although simply winning the prize was a dream come true for the youngster, the best was yet to come. Chloe got to meet not one, but three of her netball heroes. The Southern Steel’s Gina Crampton, Stacey Peeters and Storm Purvis surprised their biggest fan at her home – they even shared some of the tricks of the trade
“It was the best part by far,” says Chloe. “We went outside to shoot hoops and they taught me some tricks, so hopefully I’ll be just like them one day. That’s my goal!”
By Ellen Dorset
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