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Emily Becconsall (left) and Rachael Fee (right) playing for Team Bath NPL
Exeter Netballers recognised by Team Bath
Emily Becconsall (current EUNC 2nd team vice-captain and Exeter Netball Regional 1 squad member) and Rachael Fee (current UoE TASS athlete and Exeter Netball Premier 3 squad member), have won coaches player and players player of the season for Team Bath U19 and U21 National Performance League (NPL) squads at the virtual end of season award ceremonies.
Although unfortunately the NPL season was cut short by COVID-19, both teams had played all but 1 of their fixtures for the regular season, before they would normally prepare for the NPL final tournament in late July. The U21s finished 6th in the table and the U19s 5th.
As well as both being regular features in the starting 7 in their respective age groups Emily was named captain for Team Bath U19 at the start of the season and Rachael was named in the final 15 of the Team Bath Super League squad.
Reflecting on the season with Team Bath U19, Emily commented “I thoroughly enjoyed my last season being part of the U19s with Team Bath. The squad has been great fun, from weekly training sessions to nights away for fixtures. It’s been a competitive environment allowing my netball to thrive. It’s a great shame that we weren’t able to finish our season because as a team we were developing so much, it would have been exciting to see where we could have finished.”
Rachael added “This season was full of excitement and it was really great to play with such a friendly, welcoming and motivated bunch of girls. Every match we grew in strength and skill, had the final NPL tournament still been going ahead I know we would have smashed it.”
Netball is part of the Performance Programme at the University of Exeter and as such athletes receive access to high quality coaching and a comprehensive support services package including S&C, physio and athlete lifestyle support. Alongside this the University of Exeter is a TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) delivery site which supports talented athletes in education across a number of sports including netball. The University also hosts an Exeter based Team Bath Netball academy to deliver the England Netball Performance pathway in the South West and make this accessible for talented netballers at the University and across Devon and Cornwall.
For further information regarding our offer for Performance netballers at the University of Exeter please visit the netball pages of our website.
Date: 19 June 2020