2016 Centre Stage

Dianne Gregg and Marilyn Milne received their Life Membership at the Annual General Meeting of Nelson Netball in February. Aosther four volunteers, Andy Vincent, Priyani De Silva-Currie, Carol Cook and Vicki Reid, also received service awards at the meeting. Then Jane Andrew, Marilyn Milne and Maree Smith were awarded Netball New Zealand Service Awards at the Netball NZ AGM in Auckland. This is extremely well deserved recognition for years and years of Service to our sport. These volunteers truly do 'Live this Game'.

We have a great group of representative players that have been selected over the last few months. The Russells Curtains U17 Side placed 2nd at the Marjorie Jendon Tournament on Queens Birthday weekend. This is the best result at this tournament in recent memory, and a huge improvement on 8th in 2015. Congratulations to Tali Uia and Nikaia Wanoa-Herring who were named in the tournament team.

We are looking forward to hosting the Silver Ferns v Jamaica on Sunday 11th September. This is the first time in history that the Silver Ferns have played a test match in Nelson. The game sold out in less than a week. This international netball test match will see NZ's Silver Ferns take on the Jamaican Sunshine Girls for the first time since the 2015 Netball World Cup where the Silver Ferns narrowly took out a hard fought victory.

A new Netball Academy launched in October 2015 and features 40 elite players aged between 13-17, as well as five umpires and a group of coaches. We delivered nine sessions during the offseason so participants could continue their development and maintain their fitness throughout summer. Each session included a different specialist, covering everything from nutrition to psychology, including a session with Tactix coach Sue Hawkin, ex ANZ Player Daya Wiffen, Olympic Psychologist Gary Hermansson and more.

It was fantastic having the Mainland Tactix take on the WBOP Magic at the Trafalgar Centre on Sunday 15 May. It was a very close game with a disappointing loss in the dying seconds, but it was great entertainment. We were fortunate to also host the ANZ FutureFERNS festival day at Saxton Stadium with nearly 200 children in attendance. The kids loved meeting the Tactix Players at the event.

We have great growth in numbers this year with a 15% increase in team numbers from 2015 - we now have 285 teams participating in our winter programmes. Of particular note were 5 new Senior Netball Teams after a trend of decline in this area, and a huge growth in the ANZ futureFERNS programmes. It is great to see more people participating in the sport we love and enjoying the benefits of being involved in netball.