Shopping for Net Ball Uniforms

In one week, the school's netball team will play its first game. For most of the girls it will be their first sports competition of any kind. For me, it represents my first coaching experience and the first netball game I've ever seen. What better way to celebrate so many firsts than to send the team captain in search of our first uniform.

The team captain had pre-selected some Nike T90 shirts with a splash of purple - they noticed that I like purple-,  lots of red - to make the principal happy and match the boys' basketball team- and a little black- to coordinate nicely with their PE shorts. In other words, she had made a thoughtful selection and wanted my approval which I happily gave.

So...after school we drove to the Lumut waterfront where there are many great super-low-priced tourist shops selling everything from Bill-a-Bong surfer shorts and Malaysian batik sarongs, to Nike and Adidas sports apparel and flip flops (see blog post titled barefoot basketball and why shoes are overrated).

After determining that the store had enough stock to meet our demand, the team captain negotiated a price. I was impressed. She spoke Malay. She verified his math on a piece of paper. She confirmed that everything was accurate. We paid... RM12.00 per shirt..(about $3.50 for a genuine, fake Nike team jersey.)

The team captain then took the shirts to a screen printing shop to have the school name printed on the back. She texted me later saying the price is the same for an A4 sheet of paper (about 1 inch longer than all the paper we use in the US) no matter how many letters and did we want to put numbers on the back as well. I replied sure and asked if the girls have their "lucky" numbers and can she get all that? She happily obliged and asked if I wanted a number. I kindly said "no thank you". (The whole "lucky number" thing is so complicated I'm afraid that I would choose an "unlucky" number and then be really embarrassed, so I figure no number is better than an "unlucky" number.)

So now our team has its first uniform, and it fits my first motto of competition.

If we look good, we'll play good.