NETBALLER Gretel Bueta has shared her joy at starting a family, saying she was inspired by her Australian teammates to know she didn’t have to choose between being a professional athlete and a mother.
The Queensland Firebirds star shooter has announced she is 12 weeks pregnant with her and husband Niko Bueta’s first child, meaning she will sit out the upcoming 2020 Suncorp Super Netball season and take on a new coaching role on the bench.
“Growing up I’ve always wanted to be an athlete, I absolutely love what I do and I feel so fortunate to be able to play the sport I love at a professional level. At the same time, I’ve always had a dream of being a mother,” Bueta, 27, told The Sunday Mail.
“I’m very lucky in that lots of athletes before me, with my good friend Laura Geitz and Rebecca Bulley, they’ve all had babies and come back to the sport.
“They’ve really helped in the decision and they’ve really inspired me to know you can come back and it’s not a choice – you don’t have to choose one or the other.”
“I’d love to keep playing the sport, I love the sport, but being a mother is also a dream come true and we are excited for the new chapter.”
Bueta took a pregnancy test at home in Brisbane the day before Mother’s Day in May, two months after she and Niko tied the knot in a beach ceremony on the Gold Coast.
“It was the most incredible feeling. I was in a little bit of shock that it happened so quickly, but it was so exciting and I couldn’t wait for Niko to get home,” she said.
“I put a little onesie on the bed so when he walked in he saw it, and he was like ‘No way’, he was really excited. It was special.”
“Growing up in a big family I’ve always wanted that for myself.”
Bueta, who has two brothers, told her parents, who will have had five grandchildren in two years, on Mother’s Day in what was a special moment for the family.
But faced with telling her Firebirds teammates, Bueta admitted she felt nervous.
“You play a team sport and you don’t want to do anything to let the team down,” she said.
“When I told the girls they were so excited and that’s what made it even more special for us, was the way that they embraced it.
Coach Roselee Jencke said the Firebirds “is a family club to its very core”, adding that Bueta would remain an important asset in 2020, assisting to coach the shooting squad, before they “all welcome baby Bueta with open arms.”
Bueta has told her teammates not to have any close games while she adjusts to life on the bench.
On her playing future, she said: “I’m still contracted until the end of 2021 so I would love to come back”.
The Firebirds are expected to name Bueta’s replacement in the team for the 2020 season soon.
