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Here’s a project I did for my interactive class at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.

It is an audio, video and graphical examination of two African-American baptist pastors’ first campaigns for a seat on the New York City Council.

I was researching an article for school a few weeks ago and came across a picture of a visiting netball team from Botswana. The story I wrote had nothing to do with either, but I made a detour to Wikipedia anyway to find out more.

It turns out netball is hugely popular around the world. It boasts more 20 million players, according to various organizations that want it played at the Olympics (Netball is already a mainstay of the Commonwealth Games).

In England, every school girl plays it growing up. Why do I know this? Because expats who practice at a Chelsea gym in Chelsea on Monday nights told me so.

(Click the tube for a video of the Manhattan International Netball Club kicking off its summer season.)

In New York, a handful of teams battle each other all year. National Netball Championships are scheduled for mid-June in Atlanta.

Last weekend, I followed the Manhattan International Netball Club (MINC) to a tournament in Flatbush, Brooklyn. It featured 13 teams, from Florida to Jamaica.

Yeah, So…Netball, What is Netball?

Click image for an interactive chart on the positions.

It’s like bizarro basketball meets Ultimate Frisbee. It was made in America around the turn of the 19th century, the same time that basketball was invented.

The court is slightly larger than a basketball court, and there are baskets but no backboards. You can’t dribble either, which means if you ain’t got a passing game, you got no game. And while each position is zoned, players shadow their counterparts up and down the court. A defender must leave three feet of space once an opposing team member catches a pass.

While women have historically played the non-contact sport, that is changing. The Bronx has its own men’s team.

Matthias Wilkie, president of the USA Netball Association, told me his goals are to expand the game beyond the expatriate community, by bringing it to schools.

I wish I got to play Netball in school. It would sure beat square dancing.

Click image to learn why MINC’s players love netball so.

In the coming days this will become the main portal site for a collection of my clips, random thoughts, and themed blogs. Meanwhile, here are links from some of my past digital trails:

huffingtonpost.com/daniel-macht/
danielmacht.wordpress.com
twitter.com/danmacht
facebook