Netball - Our names are Bella Bates and Keira McNeill, and we are currently student coaches for a Year 9 netball team at OGHS. Over the course of the season we have watched our team develop as individuals as well as bond really well as a team. They are constantly working on and improving their skills, and we could not be more proud. One of our shooters was more comfortable shooting from her chest, making the ball easy to intercept. We encouraged her to try and shoot one goal every quarter from above her head. She was hesitant at first but she gave it a go in their most recent game and shot every single ball from above her head with great success. Following the game we discovered that she had gone home and practiced shooting how we had taught her - we were two very happy coaches that she had trusted us enough to try something new.

Being coaches has taught us so much about leadership, friendship, communication and responsibility. We could not be more grateful for and proud of our team and their efforts this season.

Aarti Singh's tips for coaching

Time management, making sure you're prepared for the training, eg. drills and warm-ups.

Get the team involved in their training - not always setting certain drills etc.

Get them to reflect on their previous games - asking what they did well, what they could improve on.

I've really enjoyed coaching this year. Not only did it help with leadership roles, but it also helped with improving my Netball skills. I feel that when watching others play and helping them along the way, really helps with your own gameplay and your perspective of the game. 

Laura Allison – Netball Umpire

I really enjoy umpiring netball. Over my three years of umpiring, I have learned to understand game play so much more and it has improved me as a player when I am on the court. Blowing the whistle and having others look to me for leadership is definitely one of my highlights.

Some tips that I would give would be to take every opportunity you can; whether that be during tournaments or school exchanges. This will allow you to be noticed by your school and/or wider community. It can help allow you to reach your full potential. I will always remember when I found out that I was umpiring a semi finals game at the South Island Secondary Schools' tournament. Everyone was so excited for me and the game ended up having a big crowd of people.

The support that I have had from Otago Girls' and Dunedin Netball has been great. They are always there if you have questions or need general support on the sideline etc. This year at school Kylie O’Brien held weekly umpiring sessions which was a great opportunity where we could ask lots of questions and learn new things. This has helped me grow as an umpire. It was only really this year that I started to umpire Saturday netball and in more tournaments. I really like doing this, especially when players or people on the sideline walk up to you after the game and say “thank you” or “good job you did great”. This gives me reassurance that I’m doing a good job.

I highly urge you to try umpiring if you are interested. At this stage I’m not sure how far it will take me. My goal is to umpire a Southern Steel game or even the Silver Ferns one day.

Hi I’m Elisabeth Hutton-Neill and I’m a rugby referee.

I’ve always loved being involved in sports, especially rugby. From a young age, I had a rugby crazy family. Being surrounded by rugby almost all my life from my parents both playing it themselves. I finally decided to start playing in Year 2 and played for the Alhambra Union Rugby Club until I reached high school. Playing for so long definitely helped me towards my decision to start refereeing. I wanted to start giving back to the community and help out with the sport I love so much. So I became a referee early last year. Becoming a referee made me realise how amazing it feels to help people that are so crazy about rugby, play the game and have fun.

Although my experience of being a referee is limited as I’m only 14, I’ve still had some amazing experiences throughout the last one and a half years. The first amazing experience I had was definitely the first game I ever refereed. I went into that game thinking it would be really hard and scary refereeing. But as soon as I blew that first whistle to start the game I knew I was in my element. Although it was only an under 11's game and it didn’t mean much, it did to me. I was finally able to help out my community and represent my family by refereeing the game I love so much. Another amazing experience I had was earlier this year when I was refereeing a secondary school girls' under 15's St Hilda’s Year 10 vs Year 9 game. I refereed the game as usual and loved it so much. It was only a couple of days afterwards that my Rugby coach Miss Ward received an amazing email about my effort on that game I refereed. It warmed my heart as finally I had made some sort of a positive impact on a team/person’s game. They went on about how amazing I refereed the game and that I’ve got such a big future ahead of me for refereeing. I’m sure there are some other amazing experiences I’ve had but those are the two main ones that came to mind when writing this. It just goes to show that if you put hard work into something you love, good things will come to you.

Many tips and tricks I’ve learnt and received over the past one and a half years, to help new or people interested in becoming referees would be: having confidence and believe in yourself throughout the game, having the ability to control and help the game at hand and finally and maybe the most important, have fun and love the game your refereeing. It doesn’t matter if you make a wrong call or miss anything because you’re there having fun supporting your community and allowing people to continue playing the amazing game of rugby or any other sport.