Finally! After two years of shortened seasons and cancelled SISS tournaments we have completed a full season including preseason, Ashburton Exchange and both Junior and Senior South Island Secondary School Championships.

We have managed to play over 270 games with only a handful of defaults. Outstanding effort by all players, managers, parents and especially coaches!

We represented ourselves well as the Burnside HS netball programme in both Wednesday and Saturday competitions. We had over 100 players, 12 student umpires and 8 student coaches across 11 Wednesday teams and 8 Saturday teams.

We had four teams attend the Ashburton Exchange winning three of the four matches, we had two teams attend Junior South Island Secondary School and one team attend the South Island Secondary School. Below are the awards handed out at the Netball Prizegiving held in September. 

Most Improved Player
Year 9: Gloria Oh

Year 10: Liam Slaughter
Senior: Arozoo Rayfee

Player’s Player

A:         Alysia Ono
B:         Ella Matthews
C:         Dreana Paaka
17A:     Zoe Watson
17B:     Anahera Inns
10A:     Evie Townley
10B:     Sienna Burgess
10C:     Lucy Prattley
9A:       Sakura Saito
9B:       Kate Gregory
9C:       Olive Easterbrook

Most Valuable Player

A:          Hayley Escott
B:          Anna Sawyer
C:         Sarah Higham
17A:      Jess Escott – Overall Senior
17B:      Lucia Shanks and Brooke McKee
10A:      Marthajoy Vunituraga
10B:      Sienna Burgess – Overall Y10
10C:     Bronwyn Homer
9A:        Mila Tuisuga – Overall Y9
9B:        Elizabeth Howe
9C:       Pippa MacNicol

Coach’s Choice

A:         Natalie Livingstone
B:         Ema Mokotupu
C:         Carys Spratt
17A:     Chloe Tapp
17B:     Maddison Tranter
10A:     Liam Slaughter & Haya Romero
10B:     Ruby Ford
10C:     Lucy Prattley
9A:       Laura Ryall
9B:       Sophie Dixon
9C:       Savanna Wills

Umpire Achievement Awards
Bronze and Silver Whistler: Anya Frylinck
Named in the SISS Talented Umpires Squad: Jess Escott

Supreme Awards
Junior Shooter Award: Reiss Fatani

Senior Shooter Award: Anna Sawyer

Coach of the Year Award: Anna Sawyer and Natalie Wu

Official of the Year Award: Natalie Livingstone

Team Spirit Award: Julie Uchiyama

Team of the Year: 9B, coached by Anna Saywer and Natalie Wu
Awarded to a team that worked together both on and off the court to ensure personal and team successes. The players supported, encouraged and fueled each other and worked hard to implement what their coaches taught them. This showed in the many successes achieved this season.

In the School Sport Canterbury competition this team was graded into the same division as their A team despite being named B. In the ChCh Netball Centre competition they had more wins than losses, smashed thorugh their semi final and took out their final against a very strong St Margarets team.

The 9B team had a great team of loud supporters, a slick management team, positive and engaging coaches and talented hard-working players.

Junior Most Promising: Sakura Saito
Awarded to a young player who took on this season with determination and leadership. Her coach describes her as someone whose ability to defend, attack and read the play of a game is that of a senior netball player. Her speed and agility on the court is controlled and unmatched. Not only is she an amazing netball player, she also demonstrated kindness, teamwork and empathy to her teammates and opponents. This player has a very bright future ahead of her as a netballer.

Contribution to Netball: Hayley Escott
Awarded to a player who has been part of the netball programme since Year 9. Hard working is a word that fits nicely with this individual. A player and an umpire this person has clocked up many many hours for the BHS Netball Programme.

Always on time, always at everything, this person demonstrates what team commitment should look like. Joining the A team in Year 11, I have had the privilege to watch this player absorb everything that is given to her. I have seen her work so hard she has cried, never dropping her head, never giving up until she is happy with her effort.

I will miss the reliability and commitment to not only the umpire programme but also the A team next year.

Excellence in Netball: Cathy Porter
Awarded to a player who has been stunning coaches, supporters and opponents since Year 9 with her flair, mad hops and lightning reflexes. She is a machine, she is a master at reading the game with the ability to adjust her game to make her opponents work harder. She demonstrates integrity on and off the court – puts team first and expects greatness from everyone around her.

Playing with strength and consistency since Year 9 this player has always made an impact on court. Just some of her accolades include MVP in Year 9 and Year 10 as well as U14 Canterbury Rep player and MVP both 2018 and 2019. Pulled into the SISS tournament as a development player in 2019, this player was then named in the SISS tournament team. A very determined and talented player and athlete.

Senior A - Cathy Porter

As a leadership team of three, we are pleased to say that this season has been one that we will all miss. During our preseason trials I could tell that this year was going to be a change from the past seasons. With such a diverse skill range amongst our seniors, there was a buzz of excitement knowing that we were going to create a new team dynamic. 

With quite a young team - and only three year thirteens, the Burnside Girls Netball team had much to develop when we had our first training. However, under the management of our coach Theresa Smith and honorary coach Tracy Scott, the girls continuously improved as the season progressed. Another amazing aspect to these girls was their eagerness and willingness to lend a hand. We had a number of our members contribute and give back to the netball community here by either coaching, umpiring or supporting!

Our first challenge saw us narrowly miss out on a spot in the Supernet competition after competing in the preseason qualifying tournament, but we came away with an air of confidence knowing that we could compete against teams of a high caliber. From then on, we competed in both the Wednesday and Saturday competitions with some mixed results. Despite this, everyone remained resilient and played each game with integrity. We managed to place 3rd overall in the supernet reserve competition and after many tight games as close as one point, we placed 6th in Senior Reserve One.

As our season came to a close with tournament week in Timaru fast approaching, a feeling of excitement and nerves came over the team. After netball South Islands had been cancelled for two years, the girls wanted to make this tournament a memorable one - especially for our year thirteens. This was the first time a Burnside netball team had played in A grade in over 10 years, so we set our expectations high. Placing 17th was one place off the original goal we had set for ourselves, but we can confidently say that we played to the best of our abilities.

A key memory for myself was a game against our supernet reserve rivals, Avonside Girls. After versing this team numerous times, our girls had been rearing to take a win, and after a thrilling game of mongrel, strategic play and support from our Burnside girls basketball team, we accomplished our goal. I loved this game as I think it was where all our practiced movement of the ball, defense and overall gameplay really came together. Being able to see this development of the girls made me proud to be part of the leadership team.

With such a young, aspiring team, our year thirteens are looking forward to hearing the accomplishments of the team next year, and hope that the remaining members of the team step up to take on the challenge for the next youngsters. On behalf of the girls, I would like to thank all the players, Ms Smith our coach and Michelle Eder our mumager for an amazing 2022 Burnside Netball season!

9A - written by Sabrina and Sakura

Our names are Sabrina Zhang and Sakura Saito and have had the privilege of being captains for the 9A netball team this year. 

We started the season rough due to covid but we have grown tremendously as a team. We participated in the Wednesday and Saturday games, the Ashburton exchange, and the Junior SISS tournament. These were amazing experiences for us and we went from the team that lost the first ever game of the season to the team that worked hard and improved so much. 

Our losses and wins have helped us grow greatly. We thank our amazing coach Kendra for supporting us and pushing us to be better players and to Ms Smith for making this all possible. During this season, we built so many new friendships and with us having so much fun, the end came faster than we thought.