What is Mavericks all about?

Mavericks is aimed towards helping England to develop top level players. We know that it is crucial for the Netball Super League to succeed in order to provide each individual athlete with the experiences that could help make them the best in the world. Within only two seasons of the Netball Super League's introduction, England beat the current world champions New Zealand! We are fully committed to the development of players, coaches, umpires and all of our staff, striving to give people the opportunities that might enable them to excel in their field. When we have to make contributions to decisions for the future of English netball and development of the Netball Super League, 'Big picture' thinking enables us to try to think about how we can help England become no. 1 in the world.

Track Record

We are particularly proud of our results so far. Some of the franchises currently in the Netball Super League were created prior to 2005 as they competed in the Super Cup competition. They implemented structures and groups of players seasons before Mavericks existed. We have successfully grown at an astonishing rate since our creation and challenged for the title in both seasons.

2006-7 Super League Runners-Up
2005-6 Super League Runners-Up

Organisation

Gloria Keech and Maggie Jackson have worked to achieve a unique franchise with links to netball organisations, academic institutions and business as Mavericks remains one of only a few independent franchises (i.e. not linked or run by a university or other business). This requires a huge commitment from a core group of staff.

The coaches that train the Mavericks and Mavericks Youth Squads are not paid for their time, coaches and staff commit to Mavericks as it is a fantastic franchise to be associated with. There is an emphasis on the people involved, from athletes to fans.

As we are not linked to an institutions we do not offer any incentives to athletes, they chose to come to Mavericks for the expert coaching and amazing comradery. In 2006-7 Mavericks had both the England Captain and Vice Captain in the squad and had to turn away England athletes eager to travel and be a part of the Mavericks franchise.

Background

The Mavericks franchise was established in 2005 when the National Super League was introduced to the domestic netball competition schedule. Netball lovers felt strngly that they did not want the players in their area to struggle for opportunities to play at this level and some of the top club and county personell across the East Region and ajoining counties joined forces to create Mavericks. The team was originally called Beds Met Mavericks to reflect the joining of the two strongest forces, Bedfordshire and Essex Met county netball. The decision to have purple and black kit was also linked to Mavericks background as the purple came from the old Essex Met colours and the black from the red and black of Bedfordshire. Since its creation the franchise has strived to deliver and aid the development of all of the netballers within the area.