Tasneem Casoojee’s name will surely be remembered for her constant improvement of netball and the lives of people who play it, having put in the work behind the scenes of the sport for several years as she looks to empower the women and girls participating.
Casoojee has been the Gauteng Golden Fireballs team manager for the last two Telkom Netball League seasons, and also ran their social media. She is passionate about not just telling the stories of her team and its players, but also wanting to ensure the authenticity isn’t lost in the process when shared online.
Her journey in social media began when she started a ‘side hustle’ called Digital Rebel. This project assisted small businesses that were started in their homes and with this she was able to develop this skillset.
In 2023 she interviewed for the Fireballs job and was successful with her application. She is rather passionate about authentic story telling, and was able to do this in the role at the Gauteng team, and the impact from her work has been clear to see.
“When I got to the Gauteng Fireballs I realised what a huge team it was, the depth of their stories, and it was so untold and so unheard of. So I took it upon myself in 2023 to build their Instagram page of what it was, and our main intention was to share the player’s stories in terms of BTS moments, that sort of thing.”
“We started realising that we were filling stadiums at the end of the season because of our social media platforms. We built an online fanbase, we even have super fans at this point. People wanted to be a Fireball, so we had many questions like how I be a Fireball involved in this team, and how we work together. People were proud to be ex-Fireballs, we saw former players who essentially started wearing their old merch again, and people were proud to be part of our culture.
“In 2024 there were a lot of restrictions put in place, and controlled by politics and what-not. But we decided, as a team, we were still going to share our stories as much as we could on our social platforms, tag everyone, and empower everyone.”
“As a team, we are fully aware of the image and brand image that needed to be upheld within our squad and I have to say everyone was quite responsible in that regard I hope that shines through in the coming years and us being given the freedom to share out stories,” Casoojee added.
Given her storied background in social media, Casoojee has highlighted what young women should be focusing on, if they want to have a successful career in this online industry.
“They should ask themselves what is their intention. It should be to tell the stories and highlight the sacrifices that athletes, management, and female management make at certain levels within their sport.”
“I always say to be raw and honest, regardless of the political pressures within the sport. The political pressure is always to show the sport is all roses and sunshine. How do we connect with people? We connect through sincerity, through authenticity and people connect through personal stories.”
“We can’t lie in our personal stories, because then we are being untrue to ourselves, and this is how you build a team culture, how you build loyal fans, and from personal experience, this is how you bring in long-term sponsors.”
“To succeed as a female in sports media it would also depend on how addable you are, because your vision might not be something that everyone agrees with. So you need to make sure that you know that the story you are about to share is what is best for the team, what is going to be the best for the organisation, not to lose your authenticity in the process, and to believe that your content out there is going to inspire!”
“For me, fighting hard for the story is more important to share, so don’t worry about the outside noise, the haters, the nasty comments. You need to know what your team culture is, a buy-in of what your team culture is, know the brand, and know the people who are comfortable in front of the camera.
“Have a pre-planned idea of content and have fun with it, because that is what social media is about! It’s not about perfection, the moment you try to be perfect and try to please everybody – that is your first downfall!”
As someone who has been part of the TNL for the past two years, Casoojee has been privy to just how the competition has positively aided the growth of netball in the country. She says the tournament provides a springboard for players and positive growth.
“In netball, we are not professional as yet, but I think the TNL was the right step in raising the profile of netball in South Africa and hopefully moving forward we can build on that. When I talk about earning some money, when you look at the majority of even our national players, they all have degrees to support them financially as well, so with this, this can be eradicated moving forward.
“To keep growing we have to look at a long-term plan for our athletes to succeed, this goes for everyone involved, not just the players. We need to look at a solution that focuses on sponsorship, marketing and most importantly engaging the masses to buy into this. The TNL has achieved that within the netball community but we must look outwards for the dream to prosper.”
When it comes to inspiring more coverage of women’s sport Casoojee feels this starts with the female athletes and being able to share their stories authentically.
“It starts with the women first – They need to start sharing their stories! Many women, when they start, are very good at sharing their stories and their background in their journey, and how they got to that specific level they are at.”
“We see it shine through when we get the people that relate and link to their stories. They get a following base, they build their base and they have a circle of support. But then what I feel happens is when sponsors start getting into the picture, we see these females share less and less.
“It’s either because they are scared of the outside noise, or worse, they are scared of losing sponsorship or saying the wrong thing about their sporting organisation. Let’s be honest, we can’t blame them.”
“Women are underpaid in the sporting world and have to have two to three jobs to make ends meet, and make sure they have that degree to back them up. We don’t blame them that they start getting scared and wanting to back away, and not posting too much about whatever it is they are experiencing, because you never know what the backlash can be. There are limits to what you say and how you say it, but I feel in sport – in particular – there is a line when we address sensitive topics.”
Casoojee’s journey in netball only started when she was eighteen, her mother was a netball player and asked her to watch a game. She then accompanied her mom the next week and ended up playing, because their team was a player short. And like they say the rest is history!
She has been using the sport to empower women and girls in many communities as she runs Body Motions Netball, an umbrella branch of her company aligned with West Rand Netball and Netball South Africa. They are what she terms as ‘a very conservative Muslim community’ in the West Rand, and in seven years they have seen over 310 athletes aged 4-50 become part of the sport.
It’s safe to say that the project has been ground-breaking, as Casoojee explains.
“It broke barriers in terms of inclusivity into a sport for Muslim athletes. I have to say a shoutout to the West Rand for facilitating that and the two main factors were the clothing. In a Muslim community, they are unable to expose any skin, West Rand Netball came to the party and said you can wear full-length tights and full-length tops to play as well as wear your hijab (headscarf).
“The other major factor in inclusivity is male presence, a lot of our athletes, the older ones, used to wear the face covering (niqab) as well, and they aren’t comfortable being in tights in front of men, and West Rand Netball has empowered us to host female-only events. All 23 of our tournaments were run, managed, and facilitated by women.”
Photo caption: Tasneem Casoojee’s name will surely be remembered for her constant improvement of netball and the lives of people who play it. She has been putting in the work behind the scenes of the sport as she looks to empower the women and girls participating. All Photos: Supplied
