WHS Netball team wins gold at International Festival
Winning Whanganui High School team with Lisa on the left and Kim on the right.
Photo / Supplied
Whanganui High School made the decision 18 months ago to send two netball teams to the recent International Netball Festival on the Gold Coast in the under 18 grade. There were 12 teams in the division with six from Australia, five from New Zealand including one from Feilding and one Fijian team.
It was a tough competition with four games played on the Sunday of Easter weekend, four on the Monday before the semis and final on Anzac Day. The weather was hot and with the rain, steamy. Lisa Murphy, Director of Sport and Head Coach of Netball at High School said, “Our girls handled it so well.”
They took 20 players but only four from the school’s top team were available. Instead they selected a number of up and coming players to aid their development. The top team was the Golds and the back-up team were the Greens.
The Golds won all their games and played the final against the team from Fiji.
Lisa says, “It was a physical game but our girls stayed composed.
The end result was a 21-15 victory to High School.
The Greens battled a slow start in a hard pool but went on to win their last few games and earning 9th position. Lisa says, “The players developed and their combinations gelled as the festival progressed.”
Lisa adds, “The girls learnt heaps at the festival. They are mature grown up people.” They were all involved in fundraising for the trip. We are grateful to two companies – Envirohaz Ltd and Ramahiku Farms - for sponsoring our travelling uniforms.”
Other thanks go out to “Hire It Wanganui and Wanganui Toyota for supplying minivans to drop us all to the Wellington Airport and back. Thanks also to Kim Flower (Manager WHS Gold) and Clare Lynch / Robyn Walford (co-coach WHS Green) for coming on the trip.”
Whanganui High School’s top team plays in the Whanganui Premier 1 grade on Monday nights and is consistently in the top four. On Saturday they play in the Palmerston North top Open A Secondary School Competition as the local school competition is not strong enough. Again they are usually in the top four, having being third last year. Overall, High School has 14 netball teams, two more than last year.
The lower North Island Secondary Schools competition will be in Wellington in September. High School is normally in the top ten with a sixth position their highest in recent years.
River City Press 9/5/19