Halle Brown hailed the special bond between all the Surrey Storm players as they took gold at the School Games National Finals in the franchise’s final game in its history.

Following the latest relaunch of the Netball Super League, Storm were not one of the eight teams admitted to the latest version of the competition.

While Storm’s first team have already disbanded as a result of the decision, the pathway programme continued to run right up to the School Games National Finals.

In a final stretch of matches which meant more than most, Brown, 15, captained Storm to an emotional 23-19 win over Manchester Thunder, which brought down the curtain on the Guilford-based franchise.

“There isn’t another group of girls that I would have done this competition with,” Brown said proudly.

“We’ve put in so much hard work and it all went our way in the end. It is heartbreaking for the entire of the south of England and the netball league to lose such a strong franchise.

“Our coaches and the entire Storm family have been amazing over the past season. Hashtag Forever a Stormie.”

Storm won all of their matches leading up to the semi-final and managed to maintain that dominance, cruising past Mavericks 32-12 to reach the final.

Knowing this would be her final outing in duck egg blue did not deter Darcie Allanson, 15, as she and all her teammates went into the game with one goal in mind.

“We spoke before the match and said regardless of the outcome, we were still winning a medal which took the pressure off, but obviously all of us wanted to win this,” she said.

“We were all ready for it and prepared really well as a team. I don’t know another franchise that prioritises their athletes like Storm does. It was all about ‘we’ before ‘me’.”

When the final whistle sounded, every single Storm player bundled together and became visibly emotional on court, as the enormity of their achievement began to sink in.

Ending their journey at the School Games National Finals, a biennial four-day multi-sport event for young athletes, was a fitting tribute to the team and the enduring perseverance they have shown over the past few months.

“Winning gold was not just for us, but for the thousands of people connected to the Super League team,” revealed Anna Dale-Smith.

“This club means everything to me. It’s difficult to part ways; there are other franchises, but we don’t want to move. At this rate we love the team more than we love ourselves,” the 15-year-old added.

Once the dust has settled on their gold medal win, Storm’s pathway players will begin searching for a new home to play their netball.

“We’re going to trial for every team and hopefully I’ll get to play with the same group of girls somewhere else,” said Dale-Smith.

The School Games National Finals is a biennial four-day multisport event for young athletes of school age and is funded by Sport England National Lottery Funding and backed by all the Home Country Sports Councils and UK Sport.