Sumaya's Story

Sumaya Borough: Croydon

Netball started for me probably eight or nine years ago, so I was around seven. It was never really a passionate thing for me back then.

When my sister Zara started playing netball, my mum asked if I wanted to start as well. I was close with my sister, and because she played it, I did too. But over the years, it sort of evolved into a passion.

Netball makes me feel very happy and, surprisingly, quite calm. It really helps ground me and lets me focus on something other than teenage stresses. It’s good to focus on one thing – to sort of slow everything down in life.

Playing in the London Youth Games is a passion — it’s a fire, it’s amazing. There are so many people here who are just really, really good at netball. They bring something new to the game, and it’s really nice to have the opportunity to play with new people and different teams. It’s on a bigger scale as well, so it’s pretty awesome.

I had a really, really bad game one time. We lost by a lot — it was literally an absolute hurricane of a game. I told my sister I was going to quit netball, that I wasn’t going to touch it again. But the next day I thought it through and decided to continue. With netball, there are a lot of ups and downs — there are losses, there are wins — but now I feel like I have the power to push through them.

I’m really, really excited to see what the future holds for me in netball. Competing in the London Youth Games has honestly been a joy. It’s been amazing. Everyone playing here has been just brilliant, and it’s great to raise my level, compete, and work on my gameplay. It’s really good.”