Echuca’s A-grade netball coach Belinda Lees is more than accustomed to the Goulburn Valley League grand final week, having won the ultimate prize four times across her storied career.
Yet in the build-up to the Murray Bombers’ grand final appearance on Sunday, she has still been ticking off firsts.
Lees has become a published author, with her first book, titled The Kid Who Never Gave Up, having been released this week.
The story centres on a young girl taking part in netball trials, and explores the themes of resilience and achieving goals, which Lees was motivated to write after reading to her two daughters, Amelia and Coco.
“I read to my girls all the time, and I thought there has to be a reason why things happen to you in life, I love sport and I’m a coach,” she said.
“My Dad and Mum always told me that whatever the outcome is, you have to be able to impact it and it’s no-one else’s fault.
“If you don’t make a team, if you don’t make a grade, you have to go home and work hard.
“I thought with COVID and my little girls, I wanted them to have resilience and to go home and practice, that they can be their own biggest champion.
“So I wrote this story about a little girl who goes to netball trials and doesn’t make the team. She has to go and practice and makes the team.”
The book has been a long time in the making, with Lees having started writing it more than five years ago.
After sending it to one of her netball contacts, Sarah Wall, who illustrated the book alongside Emma Wright, the book made its way to a publisher, and the finished product materialised.
“I started it about six years ago, I sent it to Sarah who I know through netball and is the CEO of NetFit,” Lees said.
“I was very nervous to do that, but she read it and said ‘this is amazing, we’ll support you any way we can’.
“She drew it and illustrated it and took care of all the production and getting it published.
“It’s being launched this week and published by Green Hill Publishing.”
As part of the release of the book, Lees was on hand to read her work to kids who participated in netball clinics this week, which she admitted was a daunting prospect.
“We launched it this week and have been doing some clinics on Monday and Tuesday, I went and read it to the kids and it was so nerve-racking,” she said.
“Kids are so honest, they’re either going to love it or hate it, but it passed with flying colours.”
The Kid Who Never Gave Up will be “the first of a couple” of books Lees will author, and can be purchased through Amazon or the NetFit website.