Coaching

Friday 12^th September 2014 – Sunday 14^th September 2014

The Netball Northern Zone U23 Team is working hard preparing to be at their best! The team had their last pre-tournament hit out on 20/21 June 2015 playing games against WBOP U23’s and Central U23’s at an event held at Auckland Netball Centre. The tournament was hugely successful for the Northern Zone team which included the 4 selected Sky City Northern Mystics players (Katherin Coffin, Temalisi Fakahokotau, Sulu Tone-Fitzpatrick and Nadia Loveday) who have been integrated into the team after the completion of a successful ANZC campaign. The results were as follows-

• Northern U23’s- 56 BEAT WBOP U23’s- 54
• WBOP U23’s- 59 BEAT Central U23’s- 50
• Northern U23’s- 64 BEAT Central U23’s- 58

The team will be getting underway on June 6 when the National U23 Tournament begins at Trusts Arena, Henderson.

New Zealand Age Groups 

New Zealand Age Groups (U19 & U23) was held at the Trust Arena on 6—9 July 2015. With more than 250 Netballers on court there was some great netball on display throughout the four days.

Undefeated all week, Northern Under 23’s went on to win the U23 Championship. Ahead by six at halftime; some impressive shooting by Maia Wilson (34/40 at 85%) could barely be faulted. The defensive effort by Sulu Tone-Fitzpatrick and Holly Fowler throughout the week was a standout, with Tone-Fitzpatrick named Defender of the Tournament.


RESULTS
U23        Northern             62           vs            Central                 36

U23        Northern             47           vs            South                    44

U23        Northern             54           vs            Mainland             34

U23        Northern             50           vs            WBOP                   41

FINAL

U23        Northern             55           vs            South                    50

A strong Northern Zone U23 Squad has been selected for the National U23 Tournament taking place at Trusts Stadium, Henderson on July 6 to July 9. The 3 selectors, Helene Wilson- Head Coach, Paula Smith- Specialist Attack Coach and Jenny-May Coffin- Specialist Defence Coach had some tough decisions to make regarding the balance of the squad and how best to utilise the 2 age exemptions which allows up to two players to be selected who are either/or Under 19 or Over 23 (as at the 1st January in the year of the competition).

There are 4 players in the Northern Zone U23 Squad who have just been named in the Silver Fern trials, any changes to the Northern Zone U23 squad due to Silver Fern selection will be managed on a case by case basis.

Congratulations to the following players on their selection-

• Maia Wilson* Age exempted player
• Tera-Maria Amani
• Jessica Shed
• Alyssa Jean Savelio
• Nadia Loveday
• Meretini Fuimaono
• Samon Nathan
• Paige Harwood
• Caitlin Riedstra
• Sulu Tone-Fitzpatrick
• Katherine Coffin* Age exempted player
• Temalisi Fakahokotau

2015 Forum will be held on 19-20 September 2015.. More details to come

Congratulations to Cory Nicholls (North Harbour) and Tanya McCarthy (Waitakeri) who both had a very successful week in Rotorua at the Trans Tasman Under 19 tournament with Cory appointed to the final game between NZSS and Australia Gold.

Read more …

Tia Winikerei

Tia Winikerei comes to Netball Northern Zone from a community service background.   She has led and managed teams in complex and varied projects and has extensive experience in relationship and conflict management.   In the past three years she has re-trained with Massey University in the Sport and Recreation Sector.  More recently she worked at Sport Waitakere offering a variety of social sport opportunities to youth.  She coaches Netball at premier club and secondary school level and has played Netball in the King Country, Waitakere and North Harbour.  She has also represented Tainui and Aotearoa Maori, Riverlands and West Auckland.   

As the Community Netball Manager, Tia will be the advocate for community netball within the Zone.  Her role is to provide direction and leadership for community netball; including player, coach, officials and administrator development.   A major focus is to continue to build relationships with the netball and sports community.  Her aim is to work in partnership with Netball New Zealand and Netball Centres to strengthen capability and the delivery of Netball in the Northern Zone.   Tia is passionate about Sport, Netball and Community Development.  

Helene Wilson

Helene was born and grew up in Auckland on the North Shore. She played representative netball for North Harbour.

Helene studied Physical Education at university and she has taught as a secondary PE, Dance, Outdoor Education, Health and Science teacher and been a Director of Sport; teaching in various schools in Auckland and NSW, Australia. After having children, Helene changed professions and began working for High Performance Sport NZ as an Athlete Life Advisor (her current job). She is the lead in Athlete Life for the NZ Blacksticks Women’s Hockey, NZ Women’s Sevens Rugby and the All Blacks Sevens. Helene is also a qualified life coach, career counsellor and studying psychology.

Helene coached her first netball team in 1993 and she hasn’t stopped since. She has coached at primary and secondary schools (Pakuranga, Diocesan, Westlake), club (Commodores netball Club and Shore Rovers Netball Club), age group and NPC representative (North Harbour and North), national (NZSS) and franchise (Mystics). Helene has also coached secondary school, age group representative and a state league team in NSW Australia.

Helene’s proudest coaching moments were coaching Westlake Girls High School to qualify for NZSS tournament for the first time in schools history, coaching Shore Rovers Netball Club to their first Premier Championship in 12 years at Netball North Harbour,  and winning the Trans-Tasman Challenge with NZSS.

Helene’s greatest love of coaching is being a ‘change agent’ and supporting athletes to realise their potential and back themselves to perform at their best. The challenge of growing their skills at a rate faster than the opposition is rewarding for Helene.

“I look forward to bringing my knowledge of high performance in many sporting contexts to the U23 team and hope to grow athletes to succeed at the next level by understanding and learning the attributes needed to excel in a high performance environment”. – Helene Wilson

The Netball Northern Zone U23 squad has been selected. The trials were very successful with over 50 players being viewed throughout the two trials and a number of the players who excelled at the trials were of a variety of ages and this includes talented U19 players, players older than 23 years of age and obviously those players who are currently in the U23 age group category. Careful consideration has been given to every U19 player selected in the squad to ensure they are able to maximise their opportunity to develop into high performance athletes and specific plans have been devised and communicated to their Centres regarding their management.

The squad named below will train and play together through to Monday, June 1 at which time the coaches will decide on those players who will be selected in the squad to go to the National U23 Tournament. Those players who are U19 and don’t make the final squad will move back into their Centre U19 rep programmes as they build towards National U19’s. Each player will get opportunities to be selected in the squad through their performances at training and also through pre-tournament games which are scheduled to take place on:

• Saturday, May 9- Game vs. NZ Secondary Schools
• Sunday, May 17- Tournament in Cambridge vs. WBOP U23’s
• Sunday, May 31- Tournament in Wellington vs. Central U23’s, Mainland U23’s and WBOP U23’s

This is a wonderful opportunity for our talented athletes in the Northern Zone to train alongside one another and the coaches are very excited with the calibre of the players in the squad. We are also currently working with the Northern Mystics Coaches with players from their squad who have been included in the U23 squad so as to ensure all players in the Zone get the opportunity to integrate their training opportunities where possible so the best players in the region can train and compete at U23’s against the best from around the country.

We would like to congratulate the following players for their selection in the Netball Northern Zone Squad.

New Zealand Age Groups 

New Zealand Age Groups (U19 & U23) was held at the Trust Arena on 6—9 July 2015. With more than 250 Netballers on court there was some great netball on display throughout the four days.

Undefeated all week, Northern Under 23’s went on to win the U23 Championship. Ahead by six at halftime; some impressive shooting by Maia Wilson (34/40 at 85%) could barely be faulted. The defensive effort by Sulu Tone-Fitzpatrick and Holly Fowler throughout the week was a standout, with Tone-Fitzpatrick named Defender of the Tournament. 

RESULTS

U23        Northern             62           vs            Central                 36

U23        Northern             47           vs            South                    44

U23        Northern             54           vs            Mainland             34

U23        Northern             50           vs            WBOP                   41

FINAL

U23        Northern             55           vs            South                    50