Every elite athlete will tell you to be successful you need to start somewhere, and for both West Coast Fever Captain Courtney Bruce and aspiring netballer Devon Johnson, grassroots level is where they both began their netball journey.

Devon Johnson, 12, began her love of netball socially and quickly realised it was more than a hobby, it became a passion. It was with this transition where VenuesWest was able to be a part of.

Devon commends her grassroots level experience to VenuesWest stating, “VenuesWest has provided me with an incredible world-class sporting experience to be able to play at their venues.”

Devon also commends her netball achievements to three world class competition standard netball courts and an administration building delivered for the Joondalup Netball Association in 2014 at HBF Arena, giving Devon the ability to play the sport she loves close to her school and in affiliation with a premier WA netball club.

To ensure VenuesWest continues to deliver world class sport and entertainment experiences, VenuesWest is committed to ensuring its portfolio of sport and entertainment venues is fit for purpose and this is only possible and sustainable as a result of its continued commercial success and subsidising high performance sport enabling reinvestment into its venues.

VenuesWest also puts great emphasises into the importance of contributing to the local community through the utilisation of its venues for local grassroots sport. This goes hand in hand with VenuesWest’s core strategic objective of delivering exceptional customer experiences to both the local and wider community.

To get to know more about Devon Johnson we asked her six questions.

Q and A with Aspiring netballer Devon Johnson

1. What do you love about netball?
What I love about netball is that I get to play and be part of a team and to be one of the people responsible for getting all the goals in. Sometimes I feel a lot of pressure when it is down to the last minute of the game and the scores are close though that is always a lot of fun. I participated in individual sports when I was younger but really wanted to be part of a team, it was a bit lonely on my own playing golf.

2. How did you get into this sport?
I got into netball because I really wanted to do an activity so I tried multiple sports and I enjoyed netball the most. Also at the time, my parent’s and I were living in Butler, so I joined Butler Netball.

3. What is your long term goal?
I want to always love the sport, whether it takes to be an Aussie representative or just play socially I never want to lose my love for the game.

4. Who do you see as the most influential person in your life?
My Mum, not only has she coached me for 5 years now she is also my greatest fan, she just loves to see me play. Her passion for the sport has definitely rubbed off on me. Also my Dad as he is so supportive of me in every game I play, it doesn’t matter whether we win or lose Dad is always there for me

5. Has a VenuesWest owned venue such as the State Netball Centre, RAC Arena or HBF Arena supported you with achieving your goals at a grassroots level?
VenuesWest has provided me with an incredible world-class sporting experience to be able to play at their venues. HBF Arena in Joondalup has recently had new courts built thanks to VenuesWest that enables myself and others to play more netball. My mum and I love to attend RAC Arena watching the Aussie Diamonds or West Coast Fever. The state of the art facilities there are a fantastic experience to be involved in and I get inspired by watching the professionals up close and personal.

6. How has Joondalup Netball Association supported you with achieving your goal?
Joondalup Netball Association has provided me with so many opportunities to help me achieve my best in my Netball eg, Smarter than Smoking Representative team trials.  Joondalup Netball Association’s support has provided us with a fantastic pathway to be able to improve our game going forward in representative teams or even umpiring once I turn 13.