Mid Canterbury Netball

Ange Mitchell - president

Ange was born and raised in Mid Canterbury. Growing up playing primary netball for the Mayfield Club before playing for St Stephens then becoming a founding member of the Ashburton College Netball Club from 1993-1995. She also represented Ashburton and Mid Canterbury in primary and age group representative netball teams.

Ange is a former New Zealand netball player having played and coached in the Canterbury, Otago, and Wellington regions from 1996-2011. She played domestic netball in the National Bank Cup (NBC) for the Canterbury Flames (1998–2002) and the Otago Rebels (2003–2007). She retired in 2008 when the NBC was replaced by the ANZ Championship, but came out of retirement to return to the Canterbury Tactix as a shooter for the 2009 season. Ange also played five tests for the Silver Ferns from 2001–04, making her on-court debut against Jamaica in 2002.

During this time, she studied a Bachelor of Commerce and Management and Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning, working initially as a netball development officer for Sport Otago then as a secondary school teacher of Economics. Since returning to Ashburton with her husband Ryan and two children in 2012, Ange has thoroughly enjoyed teaching at Ashburton College where she is now Head of Faculty - Social Science.

Joining the MCN board in early 2019 was preceded by many years coaching a variety of Ashburton College netball teams and assisting with some MCN player development sessions. Ange finds it extremely rewarding being able to give back to netball and the community in the place where her love of the sport began.

Nicole Hands - finance officer

Nicole joined the Mid Canterbury Netball Board in 2022, and she has a long history with netball in Mid Canterbury both as a player and a coach.

Nicole has played netball in Mid Canterbury since she was a youngster, starting out as a student at St Joseph's School, moving through the grades and then playing for the Hampstead Netball Club after leaving primary school. Nicole has played much representative netball over the years, starting out in junior reps in year 7 and 8, and moving right through to senior representative netball. She has also coached a few club teams over the years, and a couple of represenative teams.

The thing that excites Nicole most about being involved in netball at board level now is seeing the way MCN leads the way with new initiatives and player development. She believes that MCN has some great initiatives going with the likes of walking netball, No Limits, and our Emerging Talent programme, and is looking forard to watching these grow and the level of netball rise in Mid Canterbury in years to come.

Nicole is a mother of three children - Mason, Ruby and Flynn - and she loves how Mid Canterbury Netball has something for everyone. Boys and girls are catered to, as are people of all ages and abilities, through No Limtis Netball and walking netball.

Kev Opele

Kev Opele is a local born and raised here in Ashburton. He spends a fair bit of time traveling around Mid Canterbury visiting customers or assisting in projects as required.

He's coached Netball and is a current Umpire & Coach. Kevin's background in sport is quite vast He's officiated at international level in two codes including a World Cup and National level in four. Kevin has also started New Zealand’s largest Esports Cycling race team which has become the most successful team in the world in less than one year in the World Time trial League.

Kevin has done his Management training through the New Zealand Institute of Management and is a National level qualified coach across many different codes of sport. Kevin will also be inducted as a Justice of the peace in Ashburton once he can be sworn in.

A previous Branch Manager in multi franchise car dealerships his business background along with his sporting knowledge is a great fit for the Mid Canterbury Netball Board.

Kevin’s currently looking after the technical side of Netball with how we can use technology to advance Netball in the future.

Tim Burtenshaw

Tim joined the board in November 2020. Originally from Timaru, he is a lawyer with particular experience as a civil and commercial litigator. He graduated from University of Canterbury in December 2011 and has worked as a litigator in Christchurch and the Waikato ever since.

A relative newbie to netball, Tim hopes that his experience in problem solving and dispute resolution will be an asset to the board. He is particularly interested in player and umpire development.

Tim moved with his partner and family to Ashburton in November 2020 to join Argyle Welsh Finnigan and be close to his extended family. He is looking forward to getting involved in the community and helping to make netball run smoothly for players, coaches and officials.

Leanne Clemens

An avid netballer who has played club and representative netball in Mid Canterbury for more than 20 years, Leanne was excited to join the board at the Mid Canterbury Netball AGM in 2020. Netball has played a huge role in Leanne's life - she's made many friends, had many laughs and rolled many ankles on the courts around Mid Canterbury. Netball has helped her build resilience, leadership skills and provided her with the competitive challenges that makes sport so great.

Hailing from Methven, Leanne has captained the Mid Canterbury senior rep team in recent years, and is a two-time recipient of the Marene Cuneen Trophy, awarded to an outstanding player in premier 1 or 2.

Leanne is looking forward to the opportunity to do her part in ensuring netball in Mid Canterbury runs smoothly, sharing her perspective and lerning in detail what it takes to run such an organisation.

Kaye Kennedy

Kaye Kennedy has held both both umpiring and coaching roles in Mid Canterbury for more than 20 years. She followed the umpiring pathway from club umpire in Mid Canterbury, to holding a NZ B umpiring badge, and was lucky enough to attend several National tournaments and be part of the NZ Umpire Development squad. Kaye got a great deal of pleasure from being an umpire coach and helping others achieve their goals on the umpiring pathway and also spent many years on the umpiring committee working behind the scenes. Being a mother of 2 girls was the impetus behind her starting to coach. School teams were always in need of coaches so her days of coaching, assistant coaching or managing teams started from there. Kaye’s passion is coaching secondary school teams, but she is now at the end her coaching career so has taken on the role of Coach Connector for Ashburton College – a new initiative of MCN’s which offers great support for coaches. Now on the MCN board, she’s looking forward to being able to support a successful and innovative board by drawing from her years of experience in varying roles. She wants netball in Mid Canterbury to flourish so is excited about the board’s initiatives to make netball available for all, and their objectives to develop players, coaches, umpires and game officials.

Erin Tasker (Staff - Centre Manager)

Erin joined the Mid Canterbury Netball team in November 2019, taking on the role of centre manager. Although she hasn't played netball for a number of years now, Erin has been a regular at the netball courts over the years through her previous job as a reporter at the Ashburton Guardian. Erin worked in the media in Mid Canterbury for 17 years prior to joining Mid Canterbury Netball, spending some of that as a sports reporter, which meant a lot of time spent on the sidelines at netball taking both notes and photos. Erin grew up in Mid Canterbury and is a keen tennis player, who is married to Logan and has two children, Riley and Jack. Joining the team at Mid Canterbury Netball was a real step outside Erin's comfort zone, but she's enjoying the challenge and being a part of ensuring everyone in Mid Canterbury who wants to give netball a go, gets the opportunity to do just that.

Natalie Lucas (Staff - Netball Development Officer/Umpire Co-ordinator)

Natalie joined Mid Canterbury Netball in January 2021, bringing with her a wealth of netball experience. A player and and umpire, Natalie also has previous experience as both a netball development officer and umpire co-ordinator. Growing up in a family where her mum and older sisters both played and umpired netball, it was only natural that Natalie would follow them in to the sport. She's called various places in New Zealand home over the years, but living in Ashburton for the past 2 years and umpiring in Mid Canterbury Netball’s ACL premier one grade, she's become a familiar face in Mid Canterbury Netball circles. She's enjoying getting out and about and meeting new people, and helping them to take their netball further.

Claire Tappin (Staff - Coach Developer)

A move to Ashburton in 1999 from England saw Claire take up a role as Teacher of Physical Education at Ashburton College. Developing as a player through teams ranging from the school Year 7 D team to a national level in the UK and from club to NPC in NZ has exposed Claire to a wide range of coaches. These experiences have shaped her coaching as she has moved from college level players through to seniors at a college, club and senior representative level. Claire’s understanding of the game has been enhanced by learning and progressing through NNZ umpiring qualifications. Time on MCN Coaching, Competition and Stadium Committees has opened her eyes to the structures surrounding our game. Playing, coaching and umpiring opportunities through MCN and the United KFC Netball Club have given Claire an understanding of our local and national needs and resources.

Claire and her husband Mark, welcomed their son, Kal, into the world in 2017, and this has given Claire the chance to combine being a mum with teaching and her new role with MCN. Claire is excited about her appointment as MCN Coach Developer as the role ensures that MCN coaches have a point of contact who is focused on their needs.