Netball Super League | Q&A: Storm’s Yasmin Parsons and Lorraine Kowalewska

Two-time Vitality Netball Superleague champions Surrey Storm are ready to rise in 2019!

Storm finished seventh in 2018 and are now determined to rise together as a team and challenge at the top end of the table once again.

Ahead of the season, we caught up with Yasmin Parsons and Lorraine Kowalewska to get their thoughts on the team’s strengths and working with Mikki Austin.

How excited and ready are you for the new season?

Yasmin: Definitely ready! Last year with the Commonwealths in between, we started and finished later so it’s been quite a tight turnaround this time so I’m definitely ready and really looking forward to it. I know our team has had a few changes as well so it’ll be good to put that out onto court and see what we’re made of.

Lorraine: Just super excited for the season! With the new faces and some of the other team members we’ve had for a while, just solidifying those combinations should be good.

What are Storm’s main strengths?

Lorraine: Family – we’re a big Storm family, we do really support each other in whatever we’re doing and we try and be there for each other as much as we can.

Yasmin: If things aren’t going quite right in the game or I know we’ve had a few friendlies, we really do back each other. Obviously in the game, you’re going to have dips but we really do come together. We’re quite united as a front and I know Mikki’s trying to get the theme of us rising as we’ve had a few changes and I think it’s about time that Storm picked itself up. We’ve gone from winning the Vitality Netball Superleague to then finishing seventh in 2018 so it is about us rising together. I think with the group of girls we’ve got this year, we’re more than able to do that.

What are your expectations and aims for 2019?

Yasmin: I think everyone’s expectation is to be in the top four and I think our aim is definitely to get there as well. With the new players, we also want to form bonds. Doing better than last season is one of our main targets too.

What’s Mikki Austin like as Storm Director of Netball?

Lorraine: She’s very tactical and technical and she pushes us hard. I think she will admit that she’s a young Director of Netball but I think whatever she doesn’t know, she’ll work hard to learn it or get experience from other people. She knows what she wants out of the franchise and is trying really hard to ensure that she implements that. It might not happen this year but I really believe that she is looking to the future in terms of pushing Storm to rise.

You can get tickets to watch all 10 teams in action at the Super 10 season opener here.