Mary roped in as Desert Jewels Mentor

The former Queens prolific goal shooter, Mary Waya has been announced as the new Namibia Netball National Team coach as the Desert Jewels as preparing for the World Cup qualifiers.

According to the Sports Rifle, online publications, Waya was among the five internationals that were named ambassadors following the rebranding of World Netball from the International Netball Federation (INF), will be assisted by the former Zimbabwe Netball National Team, Lloyd Makunde who led Zimbabwe to their maiden World Cup appearance back in 2019.

Antoinne Wentworth is a local coach in Namibia who has been named as the assistant for the two internationals.

Mary Waya was Born on May 25, 1968, and she started playing international-level netball at age 14, and has played in more than 200 representative matches for Malawi.

During that time she has competed in two World Netball Championships (1995 and 2007), three Commonwealth Games (1998, 2006 and 2010), and two World Netball Series (2009 and 2010).

Mary Waya came to international prominence during the 2007 World Championships in New Zealand, where the Malawian national team finished 5th, their highest ever placing. She remains the national team’s most high-profile pair and was chosen as the flag bearer for the Malawi team at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

In 2012, the Malawi star then went onto coach the Tanzania National Netball team, and away from the court has also set up the Mary Waya Foundation.

The foundation is a non-profit sports academy in Blantyre that aims to empower local African women through sport, and World Netball president Liz Nicholl CBE applauded her for the work and attitude which made Waya the ideal Heart Ambassador for World Netball.

After undergoing a tough time in Malawi during the Tri-National series in Blantyre last month, the Deserts Jewels have upped their preparations as they are eyeing a World Cup Qualification.

Namibia Netball National Team have already named a 21-member provisional battalion which already started training this week.