On Tuesday 21st June, we sent away a mixed junior netball team to Hokitika to compete in the West Coast Secondary Schools junior netball competition. The team played four games, against Buller HS, Westland HS, South Westland Area School, and Greymouth High School. It was a tough competition for our team, but we managed two wins and two losses.

The first game was against Westland HS. This game was a nail-biting game, as it was point for point. There was a lot of strong communication and turnovers during the game, Isabel Johansen and Pyper Murphy were outstanding players of this game. Isabel turned the ball/intercepted the ball more than 9 times! The team was surprised with their effort and took the one-point loss well and knew what they needed to work on for the next game.

The second game was against Buller HS. After coming away from a close loss, the team knew what areas to work on. The first quarter was 9-1 to us. But without celebrating too early we made some substantial changes in the game and moved Marko Leleifua to GK and brought Payton Guthrie on to GS. This combination was amazing, Marko turned over the ball 12 times! Payton and Pyper played their absolute best. Payton’s shooting stats were 83% and Pyper’s was an impressive 92%. Taking the win 27-12.

Greymouth HS played a tough game and came away with a win. It was a slow start to get points on the board as we were down 1-6. Coming strong winning the second quarter 6-5. Grace Motu was able to turn over the most ball this game. Greymouth HS played a fast game which had our team not performing their best. Greymouth HS took the win 20-10 leaving the team with a lot of knowledge on where we went wrong!

Our final game was against South Westland AS. Underestimating the team they took the lead 7-5. After the first quarter we made some fast changes, Paige Rolleston and Ellie McBride turned over the most ball this game which stopped SWAS from scoring at all second quarter, Cooper Mclean was GS putting up 5 points for the team. Third quarter SWAS was only able to gain one point taking them to 8-19. Marko was able to make seven turnovers, whilst Payton and Pyper wowed everyone taking the team to a 24-10 win.

All teams played a good clean game of netball. As we were the only school that had males in our team, everyone was surprised and enjoyed the challenge that Marko, Cooper and Payton brought to the court. The boys were able to change the game of netball and surprised all the players, coaches and spectators watching. A special thanks to Sammi Fahey for coming down to referee for the team, and Losa Nusi for coaching the team! Well done everyone, looking forward to SISS Junior Netball in July.

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