WATCH: Our most celebrated netballer, Irene van Dyk, talks openly about growing up in Apartheid South Africa, the backlash of becoming a Silver Fern and retiring on her terms in the latest Pure As video.
She also tells Suzanne McFadden how she’s now giving back by ensuring NZ’s young netballers have a voice.
Irene van Dyk is living the dream.
Eight years after she retired as the world’s most recognisable netballer, ending 20 years at the top of the sport, van Dyk is still very much immersed in the game.
Now she’s giving back - focusing on giving rangatahi a voice, so they can help shape the future of netball.
Living in Hawkes Bay with husband Christie, van Dyk’s new professional role is Netball New Zealand’s participation manager of youth and heads netball’s pioneering youth board.
“Working for Netball New Zealand is a dream come true. I absolutely love my job,” van Dyk tells LockerRoom. “I’m completely out of my depth, but I learn so many new things every single day.”
That was probably van Dyk’s greatest strength throughout her 217-test career - she was constantly learning, always reinventing herself to flummox the world’s best defenders (often with Christie, armed with a broom, defending her shot in the backyard).
“But I am making a little difference,” she says. “When you do a job that’s the ultimate outcome, isn’t it? And I’m so lucky to have lived through some amazing times in netball and now I can give back.”
In the latest Pure As episode from Netball NZ, van Dyk talks about her goal to make a difference in young people’s lives.
“Netball in New Zealand made me a hero. And I think I have a lot to give back,” she says in the documentary. “When someone becomes a Silver Fern and says: ‘I remember watching Irene and I want to be just like her’… that would be epic.”
Her work to encourage more youth to play netball and have equal opportunities is a far cry from the situation when she was growing up in South Africa during Apartheid. Van Dyk became more aware of the differences between black and white children in sport when she went to university. “There were so many kids out there that didn’t get opportunities; that had the right to have opportunities,” she says.
Having seen New Zealand’s netball landscape “change significantly” in the past three years, van Dyk wants to help usher in more progressive change.
“I’m part of a team who want to grow the game and be innovative to make sure we future-proof netball. We’re giving our rangatahi a voice, because they will be the future of what netball looks like,” the 2003 World Cup champion says.
She admits she's been a little bowled over by what those young voices are saying.
“I listen to them and think they’re so clever for their age; they’re so worldly and knowledgeable. I wasn’t like that at all. In my day it was: ‘You speak when you’re spoken to, Cupcake’. You didn’t have a voice,” she says.
“Politically these rangatahi know what they stand for, they know what they want, they know their values.”
So what is it the next generation of netballers want from the game?
“For them, diversity and inclusion is extremely important,” van Dyk says. “And they want a quality experience - not only as participants, but as coaches and umpires and spectators. They want to see our game grow.”
She’s enjoying leading the youth board, alongside Georgia Trent - the first student to intern on the Netball NZ executive board back in 2020, who’s been on the youth board since it started that year.
Youth now have a seat at netball tables. Centres throughout the country have youth advisory groups, and now zones are doing the same, van Dyk explains. “So now we will have a multi-tiered system to make sure all of our rangatahi have a voice,” she says.
Van Dyk is able to work out of Hawkes Bay and travels to Auckland once a fortnight to spend two days in the Netball NZ office.
She’s also an ambassador for the new Sport NZ campaign #itsmymove to get girls involved in physical activity.
“It’s really opened my eyes to see there’s so much more than just organised sport. It doesn’t matter what you do, just move and keep physically active - for your mental health, it’s so important,” she says, talking as she does her daily lunchtime walk.
“It doesn’t matter what you wear, where you do it or what you do. As long as you’re happy and it fills your cup.”
Van Dyk is also coaching a netball team, the Hastings High School Old Girls. But one of the most consistent shooters in netball history can’t be convinced to take the court again.
“They’ve asked me a few times if I’d play, and I’m like ‘Nope’. I believe that it’s the younger people’s turn to experience the game,” says van Dyk, who turns 50 later this month.
“I train with them on Wednesday nights as their opposition, and they hate it. They say, ‘Oh can’t you just play?’ But my ship has sailed. I’m very happy on the docks.”
She’s relishing the opportunity to coach a premier club team, who are sitting in third in their competition.
“They’re really competitive, and there’s a really cool culture. We have an occupational therapist, a doctor, a policewoman, two physios, three teachers and two school kids - a really good mix of people, who play their hearts out,” van Dyk says.
It’s the coach’s philosophy that everyone gets court time, every time.
She’s no longer a specialist coach with the Pulse, who'll play in the ANZ Premiership grand final on Sunday against the Stars.
“These days, I can just enjoy watching classy netball,” van Dyk says. Her prediction? “I reckon the final is going to be a doozy, and there’s going to be only one goal in it.”
In Pure As, van Dyk explains why she decided to stay in New Zealand after coming to play for the Capital Shakers in 2000, and how that decision influenced the life of her now adult daughter, Bianca.
There’s a video clip of a young Irene telling the late Paul Holmes why she chose to put herself forward for the Silver Ferns, then having to weather “three weeks of slamming” from some Kiwi netball critics. “They should put themselves in my shoes as well, because I came over here to have a better lifestyle with my little girl,” she told the broadcaster.
A talented netball shooter in her own right, Bianca van Dyk studied at San Diego State University on a rowing scholarship. She's now living in Wellington working for Netball Central as participation lead.
“She’s doing my old job,” her mother laughs. “She absolutely loves it - netball is in her blood.” Every Tuesday, mother and daughter see each other on a nationwide Zoom call with others helping to boost netball participation.
Van Dyk has no regrets that she brought her family to New Zealand, their home now for 22 years.
“The opportunities I’ve been given, the lifestyle Bianca has had; it’s mind-blowing. It’s the holistic view, not just the sporting side of it, everything that has added to my life," she says.
“It’s unbelievable how the people of New Zealand have taken me in, and I just want to give back everything I can. And I count my blessings every single day.”
* In two seasons so far, Pure As has gained a global reach of over 5 million and more than 3 million organic video views.
All episodes will be launched with an exclusive first watch through www.silverfans.co.nz, and shown on LockerRoom each week. Wat the first episode, Sulu Fitzpatrick, here, and Sam Winders here.
