Wallingford Netball Club Newsletter July 2016 Wallingford Netball Club spent Friday 24 June celebrating the success of another great winter season at the Hithercroft Sports Park. We were joined by over 200 members and supporters and the evening started with a BBQ, followed by the award presentations. See the full article, including the winners, by clicking here. Wallingford Has Regional Success at Goalden Globes On 2 July 2016 Wallingford Netball Club travelled to Farnborough to enjoy another evening of awards! Excitingly, we won all of our awards that we had been nominated for, taking home three trophies. Nicki won the Mary Bulloch Administrator Award for her hard work 'behind the scenes', Lois won Grassroots Coach Award for her contribution to coaching and umpiring both at juniors and seniors and Wallingford Netball Club won Outstanding Club Award for the second time! National here we come in September! What a great season, well done everyone! Page 1 of 7
WNC on Tour The weekend of 9 July saw 14 of the senior club members head to Southampton on tour. The group stages took place on the Saturday and saw both of our teams finish in the plate for the Sunday sessions. Both days were very hot playing indoors and provided us with a great opportunity to stretch ourselves and watch and learn from the strong competition we faced. The weekend away was a great opportunity to play some netball and spend a great weekend with other club members! Roll on next year! All photos from the tour can be viewed here. Page 2 of 7
What Happened in the winter season at Seniors? Cyclones 2015/2016 Cyclones had a great winter season, winning all but three matches. We were a large squad but were versatile playing in different combinations each week. The team ended the season in second place and were promoted to Division 2 for the new season in September. Well done everyone! Captains - Julie B and Becky Tornadoes 2015/2016 Tornadoes had an amazing season, finishing runners up in Division 4 in only our second season in this league and securing promotion to Division 3. We had a very large squad of 13 players, however as captains, we were very impressed with everyone's flexibility and ability to adapt to the players on court. I don't think we fielded the same team twice! Everyone in the team was not only incredibly versatile, but also a pleasure to captain, with the whole team remaining positive and making sure we had fun at every match, win or lose. We saw fantastic development in all our players over the season, with special mention to our under 18s who were brilliant! We hope you enjoyed this season and you should all feel really proud of what we have achieved. Four seasons ago Tornadoes came bottom of Division 5 (in what those of us who played in that team, remember as the comedy season!) To create a team that has now been promoted to Division 3 in such a short time is a great achievement and shows how fantastic our club and coaches are - so thank you coaches! A big thanks to our ever faithful supporters - Team Light, Nicki and Sharon M - who have cheered us on all season come rain or shine and to Sue and Lindsay who have also played for us in really important matches. Here's to next season and taking on Division 3 with the same team spirit! Captains - Julie W and Emma G Hurricanes 2015/2016 After receiving promotion last season to Division 1, Hurricanes had a few butterflies at the start of the season. However, after realising Division 1 isn't that bad, and a couple of wins under our belt, promotion to Premier was on the horizon! The second half of the season felt tougher than the first and the matches started to get more physical, but we continued to play our socks off and finished the league in 4th place (and we were the only team to take 2 points of the league winners!) Captain - Amy Vice Captain Alice Page 3 of 7
Senior Training Update Senior training has been brilliant this year with a lot in attendance especially with bad weather causing us to change venues at the last minutes. All players have shown great progress this year and this is a big thank you to all the Level 1 and 2 coaches, and volunteers that have helped plan and deliver amazing sessions this year. All the Level 2 coaches have shared the coaching between them on a 6 weekly basis, and this has allowed them to train on the weeks that they are not coaching. Senior training has gone from strength to strength over the last couple of years and this is down to the dedicated coaches we have that are always looking for something new to challenge all players. Training is always fun, enjoyable and social affair, with lots of learning taking place too. We have introduced a buddy system to training where players in the same positions come together and learn from one another. We have also continued with our squad specific sessions which have worked exceptionally well with having a level 2 coach within each squad. We have clearly been doing something right with our outstanding Winter Results. Hurricanes secured another season in Division 1 and they will be looking for promotion next winter season. Cyclones came second in Division 3 and getting promoted to Division 2 next year. Tornadoes continued their impressive season from last year and come second in Division 4 and getting promoted to Division 3 next Year. As I said previously our training was hit hard this year due to the great British weather therefore from September 2016 training will now be held at the new Oxford City Indoor Arena, Tower Rd, Berinsfield, OX10 7LN on a Tuesday Evening between 8 and 9pm. I hope many of you can join us next year. Page 4 of 7
What is happening at Junior netball? U16 s Results for the OJNL League were as follows: Twisters came 4th in Division 1 out of 6 teams. Competition was fierce in this league; most of these teams could compete with some of the higher level senior teams. There was some quality netball in this Division. For the first time we beat AC Tigers at this age group. We also put in good performances against Trinity and Abbey. The versatility tournament saw Twisters knocked out in the semi-final, by Trinity. Cyclones came 3rd in Division 3 out of 7 teams. This was a very open division where I thought that we would have a good chance of a top 2 finish. Unfortunately we had to concede 2 matches (against teams we went on to beat in the second half of the season), and this cost us a runners-up spot. We have seen a lot of development in this team, plus the ability to play up some U14 s too. Cyclones had a marvellous run out in the Versatility tournament, bringing home the plate, beating Didcot by 1 goal in the final! U14 s Results for the OJNL League were as follows: With both Hurricanes and Twisters in Division 1, this season was quite tough. There were some super close games, both teams lost to Trinity White by 1 goal. The standard in this division was quite exceptional at times. There were no easy matches, so we knew each week would be a serious workout for the girls. Hurricanes came 4th out of 6 teams, with Twisters coming in 6th. Cyclones came 5th out of 7 teams in Division 3. At times it was hard to keep the team motivated, but the second half of the season saw the team win their first game. We also saw massive improvement in the teams play. Some losses in the first half of the season were turned around in the second half, and although we were unable to beat all the teams, the goal difference was vastly improved. U12 s Results from OJNL League were as follows: Again we had both Twisters and Cyclones in Division 1 for the U12 s. Twisters had a notable win over Trinity by 1 goal first half of the season, but were unable to repeat that later in the season. Cyclones gained their first win against Abingdon Tigers. It was a tough season for Cyclones, and a lot of lessons learned for Twisters too. Twisters finished 3rd out of 7, with Cyclones finishing 7th. High 5 s We initially entered 4 teams into the friendly matches, but had to change to 3 as we could not get enough players out, despite having 30 players on the register. All of the teams performed well, and we have seen some fantastic development at this age group. This was seen in the High 5 tournament where we managed to get together 5 teams for the day including a team from the Mini high 5 group. A fantastic performance by all the teams saw Hurricanes lift the cup, and Cyclones winning the Plate. Both squads beat Trinity teams by one goal in the finals. They were very tense affairs, but the result was thrilling! Page 5 of 7
Junior Training Update A lot of hours have gone into to junior training this year and we have gained a lot out of it as coaches. Some of the most pleasing progress was noted at the recent end of season awards. There is always something to be worked on! I have to say a huge thank you to the coaches for all their effort this year, and to Bethan for organising us with the coaching schedule. With more Level 1 s than the club has ever had, it enabled the lead coaches to take valuable time out. It has also given a lot of time for our Level 1 coaches to practice; not just doing warm-ups but running drills. The can also pass on their valuable knowledge as players themselves. The skills we work on each week are subject to change, especially for those age groups playing league matches. If we see something significant on match day, then we will endeavour to work on it at training at the next session. Some have been far more available for training than others, and this had made planning sessions quite tricky at times. For instance we had a small cohort of U16 s, some weeks we would be as low as just 8 at training. With some of the girls already playing seniors on Monday and school events preventing players attending, it did cause us a few headaches. Training is not just about increasing skills. We do a lot to work on player s confidence, and talk to them about what they need to develop personally, as well as team talks, about what has been done well/what can be improved. We want a lot of feedback from the players! Training is not all about instructing, we do a lot of guidance as well as individual support as and when needed. With the changes made to the U14 teams in January, we had a few issues to address. Concerns were raised from both players and parents for those players that may not have been where the expected or hoped to be. Again a lot of thought went into the process, and we had 5 Level 2 coaches assess all of the players. All were given due time and consideration. Attendance at training will be key next year, and we will be looking for a higher level of commitment. With the move to the new venue in Berinsfield, we will be paying far higher fees, and we will have to do our best to make sure this venture proves worthwhile for all. One of the key reasons for moving is to give coaches back some time by cutting out the Friday training sessions, but again it will require a committed bunch to be running two age groups at one time. Timings for next season will be as follows: 5.30-6.30 Year 3/4 group 6.00-7.00 Year 5/6 and U12 7.00-8.00 U14 & U16 Information will be coming out in the next few weeks to all which will require responses and commitment for next season. We currently have a huge waiting list, and I want to inform parents sooner rather than later if their daughter has a place for next season. Page 6 of 7
Wally Update CONGRATULATIONS to Becky for passing her Beginners Umpire Award and Lois for passing her C Umpire Award. If you want to get involved in umpiring please speak to your coach. CONGRATULATIONS to Becky, Emma G and Yas Light for passing your Level 1 Coaching Award. If you want to get involved in coaching please speak to your coach. This year we lose one of our junior Coaches. Bethan and her husband Ben are moving to Australia for a couple of years with Ben s work. When Bethan moved to Wallingford she found that there was a netball club, and came along to join. How lucky were we to have a fully qualified Sports Coach turn up! She quickly became part of the club, playing seniors, coming on tour, and joining in the junior coaching sessions too. When the club needed a Level 2 coach, she found herself a course and booked onto it. 2 full weekends down in Bristol and we had our next Level 2 coach. She has planned, organised and delivered coaching sessions for U14 & U16 sessions for the last few years. Although she was unable to commit to Sunday match days, she was always keen to know how the teams had got on. Bethan has helped out at many of the tournaments and has been key in making sure we were all where we were meant to be...a cool head when things were busy. We wish Bethan and Ben much happiness in their Aussie adventure! From all at WNC, Bethan you have been a fab coach, team mate, committee member and tour buddy, thank you! Page 7 of 7