Katie Perry is a third-year PBS student at Jesus College. She is on the Blues and also serves as Dev Squad Officer on the CULNC committee.
If you had told first-year Katie that she would be playing for the Blues in her third year, she probably would have responded with, “Oh god, what happened to everyone?” Thankfully, there hasn’t been another deadly pandemic or a mass alien abduction or any other supernatural event that specifically targeted members of CULNC. Instead, there has been an incredibly supportive community and a whole lot of bananas.
If you couldn’t believe that I was let loose on not one, but two Instagram accounts, then buckle up because I‘m now going global on culnc.org with the story of a scared fresher who was absolutely petrified to go to the first development squad training session, and is now preparing to destroy the O*ford Blues at the upcoming varsity in February.
Turning up to the first development squad training session by myself as a fresher was a pretty daunting task, and I’m not just talking about having to climb the hill to Murray Edwards’ college without going into cardiac arrest. I may appear outgoing and confident, but having to repeat my name, college and subject to yet more people I hadn’t met before after doing so all freshers week wasn’t an appealing task. However, my love for netball outweighed my fear of small talk and so I put on my trainers, grabbed my hiking sticks and began the ascent. I’m not going to pretend that all my fears vanished during that first session or that I immediately clicked with everyone that I met because that wasn’t the case. I think I was so overwhelmed with having to meet so many new people as well as getting to grips with a Cambridge workload, I didn’t return to the training sessions until Lent term, when I realised that I needed some form of social exercise to keep me sane(ish). That was also when I decided to sign up to trial for the Robins.
After narrowly missing out on a positionin CULNC at the start of the year, it took a lot of courage for me to sign up to yet another round of netball trials. When I received the email congratulating me on being chosen for the Robins, I was overjoyed. I think I might have been even more excited than I was on Christmas morning of 2010 when I discovered that Santa had got me a Barbie aeroplane, and that’s a high bar to surpass. After a few more weeks of training and a couple of local matches, we found ourselves on a coach heading to O*ford.
My first varsity experience was incredible. We were the first match of the weekend, and the excited energy was radiating so palpably that I’m surprised that the DC universe didn’t gain a few new characters. People I had never spoken to before were cheering encouragement from the balcony for all 1 hour and 17 minutes of the game until finally, after extra time, we won by golden goal. Our win would not have been possible without that support from the CULNC community, the strength of our coaches and of course Sophie Hardman’s impressive shots from “downtown”. Looking around at my team and up at the balcony in post-win euphoria, with what I know was a stupidly large smile on my face, I realised that I, like Ariel, wanted to be a part of that world.
I returned to trials in my second year armed with a varsity win, a lot of determination and of course, a banana. A teacher once told me that eating a banana before a stressful event helps you relax and therefore improves your performance. I have taken this advice and run with it. University exam? Have a banana. Netball trials? Have a banana. The world is ending? BANANA. Okay, a banana might not help with that last one, but it definitely helped with netball trials because I was selected to play for the Swallows.
I think that my second year was my favourite year ever of playing netball. I improved a lot, thanks to the thrice-weekly coached training and gym sessions that I was now juggling with college rowing. Also, because I absolutely loved everyone in my team. I couldn’t have asked for more kind, positive and hilarious teammates. In my mind, we were the Barden Bellas of university netball, moving across the court with a presence and harmony reminiscent of a truly outstanding acapella performance. Inspired by Pitch Perfect 2, I stopped juggling, quitting rowing to focus on netball in the run-up to varsity. I really enjoyed making memories on court by going to socials or just grabbing dinner as a team after training. I like to think that our mutual friendship, confidence, and respect for one another gave us an edge over the other teams we came up against. This proved no different for varsity, as the Swallows emerged victorious.
In my third and final year, I approached the trials with a quiet confidence. I didn’t have any particular ambition to aim for a certain team: I knew that as long as I remained a part of the CULNC community, I would have an amazing year. My laissez-faire attitude may have contributed to the extreme disbelief I found myself in when I opened my emails and realised that I had been selected for the Blues. The shock I experienced was so overwhelming that I forgot how to talk for almost 5 minutes, which is a mean feat considering I had been crowned the loudest member of CULNC 2024/2025. I had to get over my shock fairly quickly, as our first training session was the next day, and our first match was only 2 days after that. A step up in team inevitably came with a step up in the intensity of training. As someone whose legs mildly burn when walking up and down the stairs in my house, I relied on a lot of mental strength and a lot of bananas to get me through that first week. After narrowly losing our first few matches, I found myself wondering whether the selectors had made the right decision in making me a Blue. I was, and still am, very aware that the Blues are comprised of some incredibly talented netball players that I personally really admire.
This is where I need to say a big thank you to a dynamic duo I like to refer to as “the Sophies”. They listened to my concerns and, like the fabulous friends they are, immediately told me to stop doubting myself. They are my biggest supporters and remind me why I play netball in the first place: because it brings me so much joy. I realised that doubting myself served no purpose; it was like a firework without a dark sky, a lion without a roar, a Katy Perry record without a record player. So, I aimed to turn up at each training with a positive attitude and improve as much as I could. This attitude was finally rewarded when we won our first match just before the Christmas holidays.
As the countdown to varsity begins, I feel excited about what I know this team can achieve, proud of the journey I have gone on to get here and grateful for the coaches, friends and teammates that have made this all possible.
So there you have it, the full breakdown of my university netball career so far. Have I overshared? Probably. Did I accidentally turn my “short article” into a pretty lengthy human interest piece? Most definitely. But I don’t think it would be possible to condense my experience of and most importantly gratitude towards CULNC in a mere handful of sentences. This article may be about my individual journey from devs to Blues, but I think it says more about the CULNC community. Yes, I may be incredibly charming, funny and can yap for England, but these traits mean nothing without this club as a willing audience. I hope this article conveys the importance of support, positivity and persistence, but, most importantly, I think it shows that you should never underestimate the power of a pre-match banana.
-Katie Perry
