Players arrived safely in Auckland on Thursday 24 May to begin their four day Integration Camp and will fly out on Saturday in preparation to defend the 2018 International Schoolgirls Netball Championship title on the Gold Coast which will be played from Monday 28th May to Friday 1st June 2018. Camp began with mihi whakatau and karakia in which acknowledgements were paid to the team’s collective ancestral ties, the recent passing of loved ones, the players and their whanau along with team management who have all worked incredibly hard to bring everything together. Players then acknowledged through visual presentation, the wider group who contested spots in the team during trials in Ōtaki at the beginning of April and the collective workforce of Māori Netball volunteers throughout the country that contribute to the movement and the legacy that they now have the honour to represent. It was a gruelling yet exciting 15 to 17 hour day for most of the girls who began their travels early Thursday morning and upon arrival went straight into wellness checks with management, setting of team structures and routines, training, team bonding activities and a training game against the Northern Comets who play in the National BEKO league. This gave head coach Jess Huia and assistant coach Renee Matoe a valuable opportunity to get players on court and test combinations. The Auckland based component of the team's Integration Camp has been proudly sponsored by the Highwire Charitable Trust. As with all Māori Netball activities, whakawhanaungatanga and opportunities to make connections are always on offer with Head Coach Huia discovering a special connection with HWCT CEO David Hopkins having both served in Afghanistan during their time in the NZ Army. Back at their accommodation, the evening session included a talk by AMNOHL liaison Parekura Muraahi about the legacy of the AMNISS team and high performance programme and the history of the International Schoolgirls Competition previously known as the Trans Tasman Tournament when hosted by Netball New Zealand every alternate year. Aotearoa Māori Netball are now the official partners of the International Schoolgirls Netball Challenge with School Sport Australia (SSA) and will host the Challenge in 2019 and every second year thereafter. For 2018, SSA have relinquished their hosting rights to Indigenous Australia (the Budgies), an arrangement that is provided for in the new partnership agreement. The evening of Day One also included a special presentation from coaching staff to the team of their playing strip, team kit and international badges and players shared with each other just what this opportunity means to them. The final order of the day was the announcement of the team captain (Tahlia Runga), vice captain (Addi Albert-Jones) and leadership team (Diaz Tepania-Strickland, Brooke Neilson and Asher Grapes). Captain Runga was delighted and humbled by her appointment. “I’m really looking forward to leading the team along with the other girls to the very best of my ability.” Head Coach Huia was very pleased with how Day 1 panned out. “Preparations are in full swing. Seeing the girls arrive yesterday and the bonds beginning to blossom is pretty special. We are using this preparation time to work on establishing our warmup and game structures. Making the most of the four days before we begin competing will be vital to the success of the campaign. The players have done the work over the last five weeks since trials so there are good signs”. The team now head into Day Two of Integration Camp which will involve more training, consolidating team structures and team building. For media enquiries, contact: Melody Wilson Team Manager a tearoamaorinetball@gmail.com 027 280 1669 |
