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SPORT<br />
Sheffield<br />
Hatters:<br />
running rings around the<br />
competition for over 60 years<br />
The landscape of<br />
professional women’s<br />
sport has changed<br />
in recent years like<br />
never before, blurring<br />
the lines between<br />
stereotypically male and<br />
female sports.<br />
But one of the biggest playmakers<br />
in women’s sport in England<br />
is Sheffield’s Betty Codona, a<br />
trailblazer who broke down barriers<br />
to establish women’s basketball here<br />
in the UK over sixty years ago.<br />
Hers is a legacy of equality which<br />
has seen thousands of women and<br />
girls gain the confidence to take up a<br />
male-dominated sport – and proving<br />
they belong to be on the court. Her<br />
team, the Sheffield Hatters, was the<br />
first in the UK and has dominated<br />
English women’s basketball over<br />
the last thirty years, winning more<br />
honours than any other club in the<br />
league.<br />
Women and girls come from near<br />
and far to be part of the Hatters<br />
family, all in awe of the history<br />
and dedication of the club. Those<br />
inspired by Betty include her own<br />
brood who have gone on to shine<br />
in their own rights; her daughters<br />
Lorraine Gayle and Vanessa Ellis<br />
“<br />
Betty coached a record number of 500<br />
national league games and won 40 titles<br />
before retiring in 2009<br />
”<br />
went on to become accomplished<br />
players, as did granddaughter<br />
Georgia Gayle who is one of the<br />
Women’s Basketball League’s<br />
top players who has won a place<br />
in the national squad heading to<br />
EuroBasket this September.<br />
But you could say that Sheffield<br />
Hatters was formed on the rebound.<br />
In the early ‘60s, Betty was head<br />
of girls’ PE at Hatfield House Lane<br />
Comprehensive School in Sheffield<br />
alongside former Olympic athlete<br />
John Sherwood who was head of<br />
boys’ PE. She’d been thrust into<br />
teaching a few years previous after<br />
initially wanting to do a social studies<br />
degree at university after leaving<br />
Abbeydale Girls’ Grammar.<br />
“To get into university I needed a<br />
year of work experience and I didn’t<br />
want an office-based role. So an<br />
uncertified teacher was suggested.<br />
At that time, you didn’t apply you<br />
were just told where you were<br />
going,” she says<br />
Betty was first sent to Tinsley<br />
Secondary School before being<br />
moved to Burton Street School near<br />
Hillsborough.<br />
“It was a small school with just<br />
eight teachers and when I arrived<br />
they said they’d show me to my<br />
classroom which I thought was<br />
strange. I was under the impression<br />
I was there to help, but they put me<br />
in charge of my own class. I enjoyed<br />
teaching so much that I changed my<br />
mind on a career.”<br />
After studying at Sheffield<br />
Polytechnic, Betty started a job at<br />
Hatfield House Lane School. Her<br />
pupils included the late, great Marti<br />
Caine, or Lynne Shepherd as she<br />
was at school, and Betty remembers<br />
her turning up to a school swimming<br />
gala in a silver costume she wore for<br />
beauty contests.<br />
At Hatfield, which would later<br />
become Firth Park Secondary<br />
38 aroundtownmagazine.co.uk
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