Geva Mentor
Geva Kate Mentor, CBE (born 17 September 1984 in Bournemouth, England) is an English International netball player. Mentor was selected for the England national team in 2000, debuting the following year against New Zealand, at age 16. She currently plays for the Collingwood Magpies in the Australian Super Netball league, and prior to that was a two-time premiership captain at the Sunshine Coast Lightning.
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Personal information | |||
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Full name | Geva Kate Mentor | ||
Born |
Bournemouth, England | 17 September 1984||
Height | 191 cm (6 ft 3 in)[1] | ||
School | St Peter's Catholic Comprehensive School | ||
University | Swinburne Online | ||
Occupation | Elite Netball player | ||
Netball career | |||
Playing position(s): GK, GD, WD | |||
Years | Club team(s) | Apps | |
2005–2007 | Team Bath | ||
2008–2010 | Adelaide Thunderbirds#43 | ||
2009–2010 | Surrey Storm | ||
2011–2016 | Melbourne Vixens#24 | ||
2017–2018 | Sunshine Coast Lightning#4 | ||
2019–present | Collingwood Magpies#15 | ||
Years | National team(s) | Caps | |
2001–present |
| 146 | |
Medal record
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Last updated: 27 July 2019 |
Career
International
Mentor has received a silver medal at the 2005 World Youth Netball Championships in Miami, Florida, two bronze medals at the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games, and one gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.[2][3][4] She has played in Five CWG: 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 plus five netball World Championships, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 winning three more Bronze medals. In December 2014 in Liverpool, Mentor gained her 100th cap for England Netball playing against Wales. Mentor is a key defensive player for the Roses and has just gained her 146th cap playing Goal Keeper in Liverpool for the national team 2019 Netball World Cup.[5]
ANZ Championship
As of 2007 Mentor played with the Surrey Storm in the Netball Superleague, after winning two Superleague premierships with Team Bath.[6] In 2008, she signed up to play in the Australasian ANZ Championship with the Adelaide Thunderbirds. Mentor played three seasons with the Thunderbirds, and was a member of their 2010 championship-winning team. During the 2010 and 2011 season, she signed with the Melbourne Vixens following changes to player eligibility rules.[7] Mentor was dropped by England for the next 18 months due to England Netball's new policy of limiting selection to domestic-based players. The policy, an attempt to improve the standard of domestic netball, stated England Netball were not prepared to accommodate athletes plying their trade in overseas leagues and consequently disqualified Mentor from playing for England. She was considered ineligible for the England national team for that entire year, including the 2011 Netball World Championships in Singapore,[8] although this ineligibility was later overturned via a compromise agreement between the players and the management team allowing Mentor to play for England in the World Championships.[9]
In 2014 Mentor played her fourth season with Melbourne Vixens as their number 1 Goal Keeper. The Vixens went on to win the Grand Final in July: becoming ANZ Champions for the second time in their history. The following year her name was submitted by INF in the global Sports Accord Awards, in the Women's Sports category, where she made the top four and was invited to Sochi, Russia to receive the award. It was a busy year with another ANZ season at the Melbourne Vixens, followed by the Netball World Cup, hosted in Australia in August where she captained the English side to a Bronze medal.
Lightning and Magpies in Super Netball
Following her fifth season with the Vixens in 2016, the ANZ Championships was disbanded and the Suncorp Super Netball was established. With three new teams entering the new league, she relocated to the Sunshine Coast, where she captained the new Sunshine Coast Lightning netball team to a title in the inaugural year of the competition.[10] Mentor was named the Player of the Year for the 2017 Suncorp Super Netball season[11] as well as being named best goalkeeper in the team of the year at the same awards. Mentor repeated her success in the following season with a further selection on the 2018 team of the year as well as another championship with the Lightning.
On 7 September 2018, Mentor signed a two-year deal with the Melbourne-based Collingwood Magpies.[12] She was named co-captain of the team ahead of the 2019 season, alongside existing captain Madi Robinson.[13]
Personal honours
Mentor was awarded an order of the British empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year honours list "for services to netball".[15]
References
- "Geva Mentor". teamengland.org. Commonwealth Games England. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
- "England Netball profile: Geva Mentor". Archived from the original on 29 September 2010. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
- "2010 Adelaide Thunderbirds profile: Geva Mentor". Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
- "England win bronze in netball". BBC News. 14 October 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
- "England squad for the Vitality Netball World Cup revealed". 23 May 2019. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019.
- Hudson, Louise (29 September 2009). "Sonia Mkoloma and Geva Mentor sign for Surrey Storm". Sportsister. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
- Williams, Rebecca (16 September 2010). "Dynamic signing for Melbourne Vixens". Herald Sun. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
- Newstalk ZB; ONE Sport (15 September 2010). "Mkoloma, Mentor snub England". TVNZ. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
- Netball Scoop. "England selection made for World Championships in Singapore". netballonline.info. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012.
- "Mentor named Lightning captain". Suncorp Super Netball. 1 February 2017.
- "Lightning captain crowned Super Netball player of the year". Sunshine Coast Daily. 25 June 2017. Archived from the original on 29 June 2012.
- "Magpies sign two-time Super Netball champ Geva Mentor". Fairfax Media. 7 September 2018.
- "Co-captains Robinson and Mentor lead the Magpies in 2019". Magpies Netball. 27 February 2019.
- "Geva Mentor". Netball Draft Central. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
- "New Year Honours 2019: Twiggy, Michael Palin and Gareth Southgate on list". BBC News. 29 December 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
External links