Girls just want to have fun… Big boost to kids netball numbers
Girls just want to have fun… and a few boys too, in kids’ netball in the Wakatipu with huge growth in the number of especially primary aged girls playing during the past five years.
Wakatipu Netball Centre President Fi Ryall says there were 655 school-age players locally in 2018 from Years 3 to 13, and this season there are 810. “Netball South conducted a survey in 2021 which showed Wakatipu Netball Centre netball was growing well ahead of the population growth for the area, which is pretty cool,” says Fi.
Numbers have been rising at a crazy rate for the past few years, especially at primary school level, and Fi says that’s due in part to removing the grading system. “Since then participation has gone through the roof,” says Fi. “I think that was a deterrent, especially for girls, as we’ve had way more girls since then.”
No more striving to make the A, B or C team has seen many more Years 6, 7 and 8 girls take to the court.
“We’re one of the few centres in NZ that’s growing with many others, I understand, seeing a decline in numbers,” says Fi. Sport NZ research shows sport is losing 13 and 14-year-old girls at an alarming rate so she says it’s important to encourage them to continue.
Almost 600 local primary schoolchildren are now playing junior netball and while population growth has definitely been a factor Fi says interest has simply “grown exponentially” with lots of new girls joining in Year 8.
“The whole ethos with junior sport is trying to encourage development and participation. At 11 and 12 they have the rest of their lives to be competitive if they want to,” says Fi. Junior sport is about being inclusive so everybody gets to learn those skills, she says.
There are 11 Year 8 and seven Year 7 primary school teams playing in the Saturday competition, already well underway for this year, from Queenstown Primary, Remarkables, Shotover, St Joseph’s and Te Kura Whakatipu o Kawarau Schools. An active group of five and six-year-olds are also developing skills in the local Future Ferns programme.
Centre junior committee member and Te Kura o Kawarau netball and Future Ferns coach Rachel Little says the school has four teams this year with 38 playing – 19 completely new to the game. Teacher Joe Wearne has also been a huge support.
Roll numbers have grown exponentially from 90 since the school opened in February last year, now at 240.
With school mum Adrienne Muir - Global COO of VoxSmart Ltd, a Global Fintech firm based in London, NY, Madrid, Australia and London, at the helm on sponsorship, the young would-be Silver Ferns are getting kitted out in sponsored hoodies. “Three local female-founded businesses have got behind our girls to support the next generation who will go on to do incredible things,” says Adrienne. “Our girls will now proudly wear the sponsorship logos of those companies – Whitelaw Mitchell, Remarkables Planning and Tru Women’s Gym, as well as Impact, which supports all local school uniforms, and those women are proud to support our growing community.”
Most of these girls will continue playing through high school and Wakatipu High School Director of Sport Laura Nathan says numbers are definitely growing among the Year 9s. “There’s been some great development work being done by the Wakatipu Netball Centre for the junior club and programmes that have ensured larger numbers of netballers are transferring over to Year 9,” says Laura. “We have almost 75 Year 9s this year, up at least 15 on last year. We had five or six Year 9 teams and this year we have seven or eight.”
She says the number of girls playing normally declines as they transition more into high school. “Now the challenge is to ensure they continue with it.”
