A netball season like no other we have had before, although short it did not stop over 130 students getting involved in the Burnside High School Netball Programme.

The season was all about quality not quantity with shortened competitions and tournaments. We had 10 Wednesday teams and 8 Saturday teams with three teams competing in South Island tournaments during September. In the programme we had 115 players, 12 student umpires and 11 student coaches.

At prizegiving awards were given to:

Most Improved

• Year 9 C – Merrin Lloyd
• Year 9 B – Megan McMorran
• Year 9 A – Kate Ryall
• Year 10 C – Dreana Paaka
• Year 10 B – Karissa Chong
• Year 10 A – Caitlin Homer & Aleksandra Bogdanova
• U17B - Meshwa Soni – 2nd year in a row
• U17A – Ollianda Clinton – 2nd year in a row
• Senior B – Danielle Lester – won award in 2017
• Senior A – Brooke Macdonald

Most Valuable

• Year 9 C – Brooke Mckee
• Year 9 B – Charvi Malik
• Year 9 A – Kaia Turner
• Year 10 C – Emily Ryall
• Year 10 B – Caitlin Sim and Maddison Tranter
• Year 10 A – Lucinda Thompson-Quinn - last year’s coach’s choice
• U17B – Camille Lambert and Kimy Ortiz
• U17A– Alysia Ono – last year’s coach’s choice
• Senior B – Abigail Smith and Paige Cleminson – both 2nd year in a row
• Senior A – Kaela Mclean and Rosa Vesty – Kaela 2018 MVP

Coaches Choice

• Year 9 C – Gabriella Wylie
• Year 9 B – Zedie Craig
• Year 9 A – Sami Bequiry
• Year 10 C – Carys Spratt
• Year 10 B – Mia Chee-Quill
• Year 10 A – Sienna Croad
• U17B – Mahgen Clark
• U17A– Mia Holbrough and Caitlin Fabiano
• Senior B – Ella Sprott
• Senior A – Hayley Escott

Achievement Awards
Gaining her Umpire Centre Badge this year – Hayley Escott
There were no rep and tournament teams named this year.

Supreme Awards
The Official of the Year trophy was awarded to Bri Sands. I am extremely thankful for all our umpires in the programme. They self-manage, show up and do a spectacular job for the Burnside Netball Programme. It was tough to pick this year’s stand out, it could have gone to any one of them. Bri received the award for her goal setting, availability to umpire and her ability to umpire to a high standard.

The Outstanding Junior Shooter award went to the Y9A shooter – Natalie Livingstone

The Outstanding Senior Shooter award went to the B shooter – Ella Sprott

The Team Spirit Award was awarded to Trinity Wright for resilience shown through injury continuing to attend training and games, stepping up as captain, and maintaining a great spirit throughout.

The Team of the Year award went to the A Team.Thisteam exceled on the court and gave back off the court. This team won more games than they lost and made the 2A Div 1 final for only the second time in BHS’s history. They not only supported their teammates and coach but supported the whole programme. Six of them coached other teams and one umpired which meant seven of them were at Wednesday netball prior to playing their own Wednesday game in the evening. On top of this they all ran fitness sessions every Thursday for four other teams. A pretty cool team who always played with integrity receiving many compliments from other teams on their clean defence and flair in attack.

The Junior Most Promising Player award went to Paige Eder. Someone to watch Paige works hard makign herself a very important member of the team, Paige has a telling presence in the goal circle. A very strong mover who connects well with her teammates both on and off the court.

The Contribution to Netball award went to Riley Thompson. Riley has been a very valuable member of the netball programme for five years. A committed and dedicated student to Burnside Netball always playing with INTEGRITY and GRIT. A role model throughout her time playing and coaching, she offered her help whenever possible and always with a smile. Her very supportive family stepped up to manage teams every year. Riley led by example, always on time, showing up for everything and training and playing hard! Constantly voted as players’ player showing she is a valuable and respected team member.

The Excellence in Netball award was given to Desa Jackson. I have had the absolute pleasure of coaching Desa for the past three years. Before that in Year 9 I spotted the diligence and flair this player brought to the netball programme. Every year Desa puts everything on the line to ensure that she is the best she can be. She pushes herself past the wall mentally and physically – that is something you cannot coach. Skill wise her reflexes are lightning quick and her ability to pluck the ball out of the air is out of this world. She has clean defence always using her skill to wear her opponents down never stooping to their aggression or foul play.

Year 9 A Netball Team
Our names are Kaia Turner and Natalie Livingstone and we had the privilege to be captains for the Year 9 Netball team for 2020. Our season was an outstanding season and on behalf of both of us we are so proud of all the girls’ hard work and communication in training and in games. We had a bit of a rocky start but by the end of the season we all gained new skills and have worked our way up to become better players. We couldn’t have had a better season with amazing girls/players and also our amazing coaches Bridie, Kaela, and Riley, thanks for taking the time to train us and to be the amazing girls that you all are.

Senior A Netball Team
The Senior A Netball team had a rough start with Covid delaying the start of our season. We continued to train online with 7am training sessions during lockdown and +extensive fitness tasks to be completed in our own time. We all put in the work to ensure we were match ready for when the season eventually started.

Finally when the Covid restrictions stopped we were able to get stuck into our netball season, which consisted of two trainings and two games weekly. Our goal for Saturday was to make the semifinals, to achieve this goal we set mini personal and team goals. Monday mornings were rough with a 6:30am start to training, but that didn’t stop us, we showed up prepared and ready to hustle, to ensure we achieved our goals for the season. After shedding a few tears while working hard we managed to successfully accomplish our goal, and only losing our final against St Margarets by 1 point. If the season results were counted next year would see the Senior A team starting the season in Senior Reserve.

This year we had our shortened SISS tournament in Timaru, playing three competitive days of netball. Our theme for the tournament chosen by T Smith was ‘what's your why?’. This got us all thinking about why we choose to play netball. Everything we did on tournament linked back to our own personal why.

Tournament did not go according to plan weather wise, our first day we played three games outside, followed by two games inside on the second day and one on the third. This meant we had to adapt to different conditions which we had prepared for during the season.

These games were close and required pushing to the limit which “our why” focus helped us to do. We played our best netball, with everyone on court, putting into play our strategies we had been working on all season. We convincingly won against teams that had been close games earlier in the season.

Tournament consisted of a lot of laughs and plenty of fines, a few of the fines were Lexi and Tahlia having to do the washing which they managed to muck up everytime! Brooke M and Tahlia had to eat their dinner in the gear bag, Bridie's team had to create a dance and perform it at multiple stops on our trip home and Kaela had to make up a song with everyone's name in the team and perform it whilst out for dinner!

Lyrics
We are family
I got all my dirty d dogs and me
We are family - Desa, Lexi, Cathy, BW and me
Get up D and fight for the ball
We are family
I got all my middies plus Bri
We are family - Riley, Bridie, Haley,
Get up middies and feed
We are family
I got all my shooters rotating
We are family - Erin, Brooke and Rosa Vesty
Get up shooters and sink
We are family
Last of all our management team
Renee and coach T
Get up and scream coz this is our last rodeo as a team
Peace out Year 13

A big thanks to T Smith (coach) and Renee Burns (manager) for putting countless amounts of hours and effort into our awesome team.

Love,
Senior A x