Inaugural NZ netball tour hailed a success

WESTERN Heights College students had a netball tour to remember last week.

A group of 20 grade 9-12 students travelled to Christchurch for the school’s inaugural New Zealand Netball High Performance camp for eight days.

The college’s two netball teams won all of their matches playing against St Margaret’s College, Christchurch Girls’ High School and Marian College.

Specialist Sports Program leader Renee Lane said former Silver Fern and Mainland Tactix coach Donna Wilkins was very accommodating.

“We were fortunate enough for her to absolutely open their doors to our Western Heights College students and our kids got to meet all of the Mainland Tactix players,” she said.

“Donna herself took our students for a two-hour training session, which was an unbelievable experience for the kids.”

The group also watched the Tactix play the Northern Stars in the ANZ Premiership – New Zealand’s top netball league – with the game featuring many Silver Ferns.

They then had a celebrity breakfast with Tactix captain Erikana Pederson and goal attack Te Paea Selby-Rickit.

“The whole netball experience was unbelievable. The students got so much out of it personally and professionally,” Lane said, adding the group also had great cultural experiences.

She noted the students already had exposure to high-quality coaching and the overseas program was a way to build on that.

Lane said the aim was to run the overseas netball tour every two years.

“We’ll probably replicate that again in two years’ time to New Zealand and then once we’re comfortable with that, we might alternate between New Zealand and potentially looking elsewhere,” she said.

The school’s netball head coach is Susan Meaney, a former Australian Diamond.