Yolanda Cannizzaro, fondly known as Yolly within the netball community, has been recognised for her immense contribution to netball over her 40-year career, earning local legend status in her hometown of Two Wells.
After years of dedicating her time to netball as a volunteer in an array of roles, Yolly was honoured with her own mural painted on the town’s water tank.
“I’m very humbled, I don’t do these things for the awards, but I just love working with people in netball right across Australia,” Yolanda said.
“I’ve been touched by a lot of people in netball which has been just lovely.”
The Two Wells Football and Netball Sporting Club were awarded $10,000 in grant funding through Country Arts South Australia to carry out the project.
The mural of Yolly and 11 other local legends was painted by artist Kyle Armstong whose work went on to win the Australia Day Community Project of the Year award for the Adelaide Plains Council region.
“It’s a beautiful mural, I live just a couple of minutes away from it and it looks better and better each time I see it,” Yolanda said.
Yolly fell in love with netball when she was just a little girl despite coming from a family who didn’t believe in playing sport.
“I come from a very humble family where we had nothing, and we weren’t allowed to play our sport,” Yolanda said.
“I didn’t let that stop me. I was determined to the point where I got on my push bike at the age of 12 and rode to Virginia just to play a game of netball.
“It was hard for us because we lived on a farm and we had to work, so that’s where it all started by getting on my push bike and off I went.”
A Netball SA life member, Yolanda has devoted her time to bettering the sport for the next generation and has accomplished a long list of achievements in the process.
Yolanda’s accomplishments:
- State Country Netball team manager
- State Under 17s and 19s manager
- Convener of Netball SA's Country Championships event
- President of Two Wells Netball Club
- Community service award for contribution to women’s netball
- Committee member of Adelaide Metro Netball Division
- Community service award to netball in the Gawler area
- Convener of the master’s competition
- Team manager of the state and country combined team
- Committee member of preseason cup
Yolanda even helped raise money for Netball SA in hopes to elevate netball across the state, an achievement she said she is extremely proud of.
“I was on a committee where we raised $15,000 in a fundraiser by delivering telephone books in the metropolitan area and we won a contract through telecom,” Yolanda said.
However, it was her work with the South Australian state teams that Yolanda holds as her fondest memory during her time in netball.
“I think travelling with the State Under 17’s interstate and winning those national titles as a team manager was the most unbelievable feeling,” Yolanda said.
“We won four national titles in State Under 17’s between 1987 and 1996 and we went onto win two more after that.
“I also went to the Cook Islands with the State Country team in 1982 because Country Carnival was my favorite event, and it was where I stared as a convener.”
Yolly’s passion for the game was passed down to her daughters and now her granddaughters who she still watches play.
“We are a big sporting family and I’m still following the netball by going to Gawler on Tuesdays and Thursday nights to keep an eye on things and just go around saying hello to everybody,” Yolanda said.
The mural of Yolly and her fellow local legends can be found at the Two Wells Sporting Club on Old Port Wakefield Road.
