There is no pain on Earth quite like a netball hitting your finger on a cold winter day. Yet unlike Cinderella there were 140 players who ran to the ball not away this season.

2018 was a good season for Burnside with six Senior teams, seven Junior teams, nine Student Coaches and Managers and 14 Umpires participating in the Netball Programme. 

At the prizegiving these notable awards were awarded to students: 

Most Improved
Year 9 C - Karen Huang
Year 9 B - Jess Ridgway
Year 9 A - Hayley Escott
Year 9/10 Combined - Kathy Choi
Year 10 C - Amelia Wilson
Year 10 B - Madison Boles
Year 10 A - Caitlin Fabiano
U17C - Julia Kim
U17B - Isla Murphy
U17a - Haylee Kereama
Senior C - Brylee Mills
Senior B - Melissa Coker
Senior A - Brigit Kwell

Most Valuable
Year 9 C - Emma Gibson
Year 9 B - Ollianda Clinton
Year 9 A - Catherine Porter
Year 9/10 Combined - Anabel Lindstrom
Year 10 C - Melissa Green (2nd time winner)
Year 10 B - Brianna Borrmeister
Year 10 A - Lalelei Tuisuga
U17C - Alyssa Thompson
U17B - Maddi Beardsley
U17A - Riley Thompson and Kaela Mclean (Riley 2nd time winner)
Senior C - Savannah Morielli (2nd time winner)
Senior B - Devin Johnston
Senior A - Sam Tarres & Millie Bainbridge (Sam 2nd time winner)

Coaches Choice
Year 9 C - Binoli Goonatillake
Year 9 B - Camille Lambert
Year 9 A - Alysia Ono
Year 9/10 Combined - Avril Ng
Year 10 C - Holly Sanders-Young (2nd time winner)
Year 10 B - Lileeh Davis
Year 10 A - Madison Garrett
U17c - Rebecca Bond Bates
U17b - Katerina Cvetanova
U17a - Bridie Thompson
Senior C - Danielle Lester
Senior B - Xanthe Perriman
Senior A – Katie Sapsford (2nd time winner)

UMPIRE AWARDS 

Ketana Armstrong gained Zone theory
Bri Sands gained Level 1
Yanah gained Platinum, Level 1 and Level 2 

Christchurch Netball Centre Game Officials Award Trophy for encouragement and contribution to umpiring was awarded to Burnside High School 

Official of the Year Award went to HALEY GRIMES. 

SUPREME AWARDS 

Outstanding Junior Shooter: Y10A - Rerekiao Perenara-O'Connell

Outstanding Senior Shooter: SENIOR A - Lily Sharp

Contribution to Netball:  Caitlin Barraball
Caitlin dedicated many hours to netball coaching, playing, umpiring, and coaching some more. An all round supporter to the netball programme, always smiling, laughing and helping out if she was needed. A committed and dedicated player to Burnside Netball, even through injury.

Team of the Year:  U17A, a very strong team who despite having nine players were a force to reckon with, winning more than they lost, they made and played an outstanding semi-final with everyone taking the court. They were in the final for U17 Division 1 a very big achievement. 

Junior Most Promising Player: Cathy Porter
Cathy was a powerhouse player and defender. She was in the U14 Canterbury team and was awarded MVP for her Canterbury team. 

Excellence in Netball: Samantha Tarres
Samantha was a very talented and knowledgeable player. She challenged her opponents and thrilled and inspired her teammates. She was a hard working team mate on and off the court, always leading by example, organised, encouraging, never satisfied, team first attitude. Always wanting more from herself. Injuries did not stop this hard working and dedicated player, she played through anything (nothing a quick 1 minute foetal position sleep on the side of the court couldn't fix). Grit you can’t coach and this girl has it and is one of the main reasons Sam was this year’s recipient of the Excellence in Netball Award. 

SENIOR A TEAM REPORT
Written by Katie Sapsford and Sam Tarres

As a team we had many goals throughout the season, some of which we achieved with flying colours, others that we struggled to overcome. Despite the challenges the girls always managed to put on a brave face and push through. 

An exciting challenge we smashed was learning a new defensive style which none of us had come across prior to this season. Drop D started out rocky but once the team overcame the learning challenges associated, we were able to lead into a successful defensive season, doing our coaches proud. 

This team tactic set us up for a firing start at the South Island Secondary Schools (SISS) tournament, enabling us to make the elusive top 16, which was a big goal for the team leading into tournament. We pushed hard right through the ups and downs and managed a successful 11th place, right on target. 

THEME ‘Rock And Roll’: 
This was our tournament team theme, in which the coaches decided to be fitting, due to it replicating the links within the netball court. ‘Rock’, symbolised our solid defensive unit of four, Millie, Brooke, Eva, and Desa. This was due to their strength and hard core grit on court. ‘And’ was the midcourt link between the two ends, tying the defence to the shooters and the rock to the roll, this hard working mini unit involved Sam, Riley and Brigit. ‘Roll’ replicated our shooting circle players, in the way they swiftly rolled the top of the circle and around their players and rolled on the points. Roll was made up of Katie, Lily, Tayla and Ella. Despite Tayla not being able to take the court at tournament, she was an outstanding leader of the warm up, cool down and stretch session pre and post each game. The Rock and Roll theme helped link all aspects and strengths of our players together, forming an unstoppable team. 

There was a recurring theme of the number 11 within the team, our goals and achievements. We have 11 team players, our culture of ‘Rock And Roll’ contains 11 letters, our goal of ‘Own The Top 16” also contains 11 letters, and we ended up placing 11th. It’s fair to say our lucky number is 11. 

PLAYER PROFILES
"ROCK"

Desa “DJ Doom” Jackson(GK/GD): A late addition to the team, she was a valuable member of our circle defence, ensuring plenty of stoppages through the court. Her pure determination showed through on court and in team challenges. She came in late but was worth the wait. 

Brooke “ya girl Brooklyn” Williams (GD/GK): Where to start with Brooke, she came in firing from the big smoke of Hokitka. She made her presence known with her excellent hunting skills and hunger for the ball. It’s safe to say her position in the team was no grave mistake. 

Millie “Shazza” Bainbridge (GK/GD/WD): Injured or not, she is hungry for the ball. Her presence and experience on court was not taken for granted, the highest capped player in her third season in the team. Her defensive talent will be missed in years to come. 

Eva “Eva diva” Rewiri (WD/C): As one of the co-captains, she bought the enthusiasm needed, even at 6.30am trainings. Although it appears she is away with the fairies, her effortless ability to intercept is second to none. She was a strong impact player for our defensive unit, bringing in a lot of turnover ball. 

"AND"
Riley “Razza” Thompson (WA): Key new addition to our mid court, she had a firing energy every game nailing the feed into the shooters with her effortless high passes over towering defence. Her sick moves on court somewhat resembled her crippling car sickness. She didn’t speak much but when she did it was pure gold. 

Brigit “Bdiggity” Kwell (C/WD): She took home the best teammate award for SISS tournament, which was well deserved for her efforts on and off court. Her athletic ability definitely shone through on court, there is no way her opponent could keep up. Man, that girl got some wheels. 

Caitlin “Lil Nug” Barraball (WA/C): She was the team energiser bunny on and off court, a key link bringing the ball safely through to the shooters with her strong drive to the circle. Unfortunately, Caitlin wanted to go one way but her knee the other, putting her out for the second half of the season. 

Sam “Lord dill” Tarres (C/WA/GA): Although she may have more injuries than she does funky socks, it does not stop her from rocking the court. As an extremely valuable co-captain and mid court player, she was the glue the team needed and her experience on the court bought a mature aspect to the game. Its safe to say, Miss Muir will never have as cool a highlighter collection as she does and Theresa will miss her BFF in years to come. 

"ROLL"
Ella “Dory” Downing (GA): Although she struggles with information, she manages to pull through on court. A solid member of the shooting circle she rolls on the points for our team. In the unlikely event that her netball career doesn’t take off, she can at least fall back on her scrunchie making skills. 

Tayla “Big Mac rocky” Mackie(GA/WA): With the right amount of skill and sass, Tayla positioned herself to be a key member of the shooting circle. She had a strong season and was a reliable and trustworthy player. Not only did she sink the shots, she put a stop to her player too. Unfortunately Tayla injured herself the day before tournament but that did not stop her being a crucial team member leading the team through warm ups. 

Lily “Lil Lil” Sharp (GK/GS): She holds the circle as well. It’s fair to say her ability to control the circle opened up a lot of opportunity for our team, and herself bringing home the SISS Touranment MVP. She fitted in well with the team theme, considering she rolled her ankle almost every game. 

Katie “K$ap Rocky” Sapsford (GA/GS/WA): Although initially bought into the team for her great netball skill set, we later found out that Ksaps comedic skills were just as quality as her netball skills. She could wash our whites better than we wore them and brew a fine tea almost as good as her give and get in the circle. 

"MANAGEMENT"
Miss “Muir Machine” Muir (Coach): Although a knowledgeable member of our coaching team, her knowledge could not always stretch to contain the answer to our dumb questions, or understand Ksaps ability to forget about the washing. Her amazing netball ability shone throughout her coaching wisdom, although her funky sock game let her down. Watch out, not only will she intercept your pass she’ll steal your pen too. 

Theresa “TSmith” Smith (Coach): It’s fair to say the coffee machine saved her sanity on tournament. Her ability to persevere through our 6.30am grumps and distractedness was outstanding and her commitment to the team did not go amiss. No matter the result of our game, she could always pull through with new things to try. Despite struggling to get her socks on the right feet, her MKR cooking experience was not unappreciated. 

Deborah (The zebra) (Manager): Her stats taking skills were almost as on point as her coordinated active wear outfits. Debs physio knowledge was always valued for our very injury prone team. If there was a job to be done, the zebra was on it. As a result of tournament and our nightly team challenges, the management gave out awards based on our performances on and off court. 

Tournament MVP: Lily Sharp.
Team Player Award: Brigit Kwell.
The Hustler Award: Millie Bainbridge
The Grit Award: Samantha Tarres.
The Players Player Award: Samantha Tarres. 

To fit the theme of Rock and Roll, we had a billboard chart. Team members could move up or down due to silly mistakes, or outstanding effort in helping out throughout the day. Tayla Mackie finished on Top Of The Billboard Chart, resulting in being awarded the most helpful member of the rock and rollers. 

The final award was for the mini unit that gained the most points from team challenges. It was a very close and competitive experience, that pushed the team bonds to breaking points. Team ‘Rock’ a.k.a “Dogs” came away with the win, closely followed by team ‘And’ and last but not least team ‘Roll’ (They crumbled just as much as their cake!) It’s safe to say it’s been a very long and testing season for us all, but we have all come out rock stars at the end. 

A special mention to our fellow year 13’s, Lily Sharp, Millie Bainbridge and Eva Rewiri who we have been playing with since year 9. We will miss greatly playing with you in the green and white kit, and wish you all the best for what is to come xx Also we wish the year 11 and 12’s all the best for the seasons to come, and we pray for the sanity of the following coaches.

Overall, a very successful season. Not only outcome wise, but as a team we have grown, learnt, and overcome many challenges put in our path. We supported each other through the good news, the bad news, the laughs and the tears. 

We are hugely thankful for the countless opportunities we were offered from Burnside High School, and for the continuous support from family, friends, and loved ones that have been on this wonderful netball journey with us. 

We also would like to thank the management team, and our fellow players for making it such a rewarding season. And a wise women once said “Lets do this, YEET” 

Yours Sincerely, Ksap Rocky and Lord Dill xx 

Go the Cabbage