Queanbeyan’s netballers took a stand against sideline abuse from parents and spectators as part of the state government’s shoosh for kids week.
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The week-long campaign aimed at increasing the enjoyment for children playing sport, and ending the abusive and competitive comments from adults during games.
Between each game of the carnival played on Saturday, the young players took the microphones to read out the message, pleading with adults to not comment to players, referees or say anything negative.
“It's more effective that they're listening to a player rather than an official,” Queanbeyan Netball Association president Kelly Lolesio said.
“We have had our fair share of trouble on the sidelines, as all sports would, and it's usually the parents being over passionate about what's going on on court, not the players or the officials.
“It's good for the kids to remind the parents of what it means to them and protecting our umpires.”
Mrs Lolesio said sports had enough trouble with children dropping out of playing organised sport without the added pressure of loud adults.
"We're trying to promote women in sport and get our junior girls coming through and representing Queanbeyan,” she said.
"The last thing we want is for them to feel pressure from the sidelines.”
And the association wanted to extend their stance against loud spectators outside the week’s campaign.
“We've been running it for three weeks so it has had time to sink in,” Mrs Lolesio said.
“It's not something we did for a day and can forget about.”
The state government’s office of sport chief executive Matt Miller said he wanted to promote junior sport as a positive and happy place for kids.
“Sport is such an important part of our lives, with so many recognised health and social benefits,” Mr Miller said.
“We want to ensure that all players, officials and spectators have a positive experience.”
“Most people do the right thing, however the sports we are working with want to remind spectators that there is no place for negative comments in local sport.”