The new game in town

SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - It’s something Natalie Notaney thought she sacrificed when she left Australia for San Francisco, a game that produces national celebrities abroad but draws blank stares in the States.

But there she was Wednesday night on Treasure Island, laughing and sweating along with her teammates on the San Francisco Southernstars while playing netball, a kind of basketball hybrid as customary in Commonwealth countries as hoops is here.

The Stars draw netball players from Australia, Canada, England, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Africa. And even some Americans have started showing up, slowly coming around to what team member Minette Viljoen calls “probably the most popular women’s sport in the world.”

For most of the players, it is the camaraderie as much as the competition that brings them out.

“I enjoy netball, but I enjoy the friends just as much,” Notaney said. “Having something fun and familiar really helps when you’re settling into a new country. It eases the culture shock.”

Netball was created in 1895, when Louisiana gym teacher Calara Baer misinterpreted the rules of basketball. The game is played

7-on-7 using a mix between a basketball and a volleyball and attempting to score on a 10-foot-high basket that has no backboard. Players are restricted to certain areas of the court, cannot dribble and must pass or shoot in less than three seconds, with defenders forced to stay three feet away from attacking players.

The Stars have come a long way since Viljoen arrived from South Africa three years ago. Then, she was happy to find a tiny cluster as players who shared her passion. Now, the team has recently completed construction on the first official 100-by-50-foot netball court in Northern California at the Golden Gate Rugby Club on Treasure Island and will host its first tournament this weekend.

Seven teams from around the country will compete Saturday, with games starting at 9 a.m., to be followed Sunday with an open instructional event. Admission to both is free.

“We’re extremely excited,” Viljoen said. “Netball is passed through the generations at home, but I thought I’d have to take up basketball when I moved here. We’ve worked hard to get more people playing netball.”

Wendy Flynn had never heard of netball while growing up as a recreational basketball and volleyball player in Los Angeles, but got hooked when a friend from New Zealand brought her out to see the Stars practice.

“In the rest of the world, women in their 20s, 30s and 40s stay active with team sports, which isn’t always the case here,” said Flynn, 29. “These girls are a hoot.”