AN AUSTRALIAN women’s netball captain used to regard her height as a curse, as a child growing up in a small country town in the Darling Downs.
On Monday Laura Geitz began her regional Queensland tour in Mount Isa on behalf of the Queensland Country Health Fund – which has its roots in the mining city following a strike in the 1960s. Geitz steps back from her netball role as an expecting mother.
During the event held at the Mount Isa Civic Centre Geitz recalled suffering from low self-esteem, in part due to a growth spurt which enabled her to be six feet at 13.
“I was known as little giraffe, lanky, and other names I won’t share with you...I was heads and shoulders taller than everyone in my class, including boys,” Geitz said.
Her father, a sunflower farmer in Allora, was a big influence on Geitz. He predicted a day she would be thankful for her height. “You’ve been given a god given gift. Use it to the best of your ability...otherwise it’s a waste,” he told her.
Geitz’s older sister signed on to play netball and so she decided to do the same. The rather excited coaches put her in the goal shooter position due to her height.
The problem was that Geitz could not shoot to save herself, or at least that’s how she describes it. She relied on a combination of height, and rebounding. “It took 10 to 15 attempts to get one goal in. At the other end the goalkeeper and goal shooter were sitting on the ground, they hadn’t seen the ball for so long.”
Coaches tried her out in hockey, and then in netball again but in other positions which worked better for her. Geitz began to love the game so much that she aspired to play for Australia.
“Some people might think it was arrogant, some people thought it was stupidity that at 13 that was what I wanted to do in my life...I just knew all I wanted was to get my hands on an Australian dress, with my name on it.”
When she was 18 Geitz went to Canberra to study at the Australian Institute of Sport. She did not like it and described the capital as a jail when compared to the wide open spaces of Allora. “The only thing that kept me there was the 24 hour dining hall to be honest,” she said.
Geitz wanted to leave but her dad told her bluntly on the phone that she needed to take an interest in her team mates for things to get better. To prove him wrong she tried, and then found life was much better. Through her new friends Geitz discovered the night life.
At 20 she trained for the Australian Diamonds and while doing drills managed to secure the dress of her idol Liz Ellis during training, and she took it home and kept it. The notorious Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010 was her first time offically wearing the green and gold.
