Player Spotlight 💡

Basketball superstar Laura told us how she's a massive advocate for Just Play, and how she loves that her team just clicks. 🌟

How did your Just Play journey begin?

My Just Play journey began with a girl at work telling me she’d joined her first ever basketball team. She raved about how much fun she was having and how nice it was to have everything sorted and just rock up to her games. I remember thinking how brave she must be to walk into a team of complete strangers when she’d never played basketball in her life. A few months later my basketball team folded due to several girls not being able to commit to another season. Having just gotten back into basketball after a few years off, I was devastated and genuinely didn’t know what I was going to do without it. Then I remembered my friend from work telling me about Just Play. I jumped on the website, sent a few messages enquiring about different competitions, contacted the few remaining members of my old team that were still interested in playing and the three of us signed up shortly after.

Tell us about what it was like meeting your team for the first time.

Meeting my team initially was a little scary as I was coming in mid season and a lot of the team had played together before. After a few minutes of chatting with them though, those nerves fell away. My new teammates expressed how happy they were to have new players on the team and were all incredibly encouraging and kind both in that meeting and ever since. They are a great bunch of ladies and I feel grateful to get to play with them every week 🥰

Favourite Just Play moment?

My favourite JP moment so far happened about mid-way through my first season. Up until this point we’d all still been figuring out each other's playing styles and positions, so while we were playing together it didn’t really feel like we were playing a team yet. Then out of nowhere, midseason we had a game where something just clicked. Everyone has their spot, everyone was looking for each other and moving the ball around really nicely and everyone was being really supportive. It was such a little thing, but it was the moment we all came together as a team and that was really special.

Pictured with teammate Rebekah

Do you find Just Play easy to use?

Just Play has been incredibly easy to use! When I was initially enquiring about enrolling in a team I found the website really straightforward and easy to navigate. As I had more specific questions come up closer to enrolment, the instant messaging app meant I could send questions through and always had a reply both to my email and the app within 24 hours or less. Starting up with my team, the JP crew are always in contact, sending me text and email updates regarding my game details, as well as notifying me of any additional games needing fill ins that I might be interested in. I always know where I am and what the expectation is and I know if I ran into any issues I could contact one of the crew members to help me out.

Would you recommend Just Play to a friend?

I would definitely recommend Just Play to a friend. I am a huge advocate for playing team sports as I think it contributes to both regular, fun exercise and connection into your life. As you get older it can become really difficult to get back into or start up a new sport, despite having a drive to get involved a range of things can get in the way, such as not knowing enough people interested in making a team, wanting to ty something your friends don’t and playing at a different level to the people you know. Just Play made all of this really easy, allowing me to re-engage with the sport I love and placing me in a team with fellow dedicated and supportive players.