When the cream of New Zealand’s secondary school netball talent come together to put their credentials to the test in January, two young Mid Cantabrians will be among them.

Netball NZ is hosting three National Development camps in January, in Auckland, Ashburton and Hastings, and among those attending the Ashburton one will be Ashburton College’s Makeleta Ula and Mount Hutt College’s Rebekah Kalweit.

Both players were identified through a regional development day held in Ashburton in October, and then put forward for an advanced day for players from the Mainland zone, from which they were nominated to attend the National Development camps. When the final list of 90 players to attend the camp was released this week, both of their names were there. The last Mid Canterbury player to attend the national camps was Mia Pearson, back in 2020, when there was just the one camp held nationally as opposed to the three camps now held around the country.

Since that change was made three years ago, Ashburton’s EA Networks Centre has played host to the Southern camp each year and Mid Canterbury Netball centre manager Erin Tasker said it was great that Netball NZ kept coming back, and a credit to the council-run facility.

“And now, in 2024, to have two of our own players included in this camp having been identified as some of the most promising players within the Mainland zone, is so exciting,” Tasker said.

Both Ula and Kalweit played in the Mid Canterbury Netball ACL premier 1 competition in 2023, with Ula playing for College A and Kalweit for Methven Wareings A. Both were also members of the Mid Canterbury U16A rep team in 2023.

All up, 90 secondary school players from throughout New Zealand have been invited to attend the three regionalised camps. Selections were based on Zone Feedforward nominations, which included feedback provided by the Zone performance staff, zone talent spotters and/or team coach.  This was combined with previous tracking by the Netball New Zealand (NNZ) Emerging Talent selectors and reviewed. 

"This is a really important component of the pathway process for these young players,’’ NNZ pathway programs manager Nicky Cattermoul said.

"Over each of the three-day camps, players will undergo a series of movement competency screenings, fitness testing, skill sessions, position-specific sessions and match play.

"The aim of the camp to is educate, grow and challenge, to help improve individual skillsets, but also for players to gain an understanding of the expectations to be a performance netballer.’’  

The camp will be led by New Zealand Secondary Schools head coach Pelesa Semu and assistant coach Jo Morrison. They will be assisted across the camps by the Synergy Hair National League head coaches – Ripeka Pirie (Northern Marvels), Michelle Parsons (Northern Comets), Te Aroha Keenan (WaiBOP), Ngamara Milner-Olsen (Central Manawa), Geni Ah Tong (Mainland) and Abbey McKenzie (Southern Blast) along with support from NetballSmart staff. 

The camps will be held as follows:

Camp 1: Upper North Island |30 Players from Northern and WaiBOP 

13^th – 15^th January 2024, Auckland

Camp 2: South Island |30 Players from Mainland and South  

19^th – 21^st January 2024, Ashburton

Camp 3: Lower North Island | 30 Players from Central and WaiBOP 

26^th – 28^th January 2024, Hastings

The players to attend the Ashburton camp are:

Mainland

Abby Rangi (Nayland College)

Aliyah Newton (Kaiapoi High School)

Charlotte Coughlan (St Margaret’s College)

Emma Solly (Nelson College for Girls)

Grace Shirley (Waimea College)

Hannah Lawler (Rangiora High School)

Holly Maraki (St Andrew’s College)

Isabella Faingaanuku (Christchurch Girls’ High School)

Jody McCarthy-Dempsey (Darfield High School)

Kayla Holland (Darfield High School)

Leila Tu’inukuafe (Christchurch Girls’ High School)

Makeleta Vasiti-Ula (Ashburton College)

Naviyah-Aman Kaliyati (Lincoln High College)

Rebekah Kalweit (Mount Hutt College)

Renette Van Heerden (Craighead Diocesan School)
 

South

Anasta Price (Southland Girls’ High School)

Aya Moetaua (St Hilda’s Collegiate School)

Bridget O’Malley (Wakatipu High School)

Billie Craig (Columba College)

Giselle Hagan (Otago Girls’ High School)

Grace Tiko (Cromwell College)

Joanna Ellenden (Southland Girls’ High School)

Libby Crawford (James Hargest College)

Lucy Morrison (Columba College)

Milasa Finau (Cromwell College)

Millie Mackenzie (Columba College)

Perri Hore (St Hilda’s Collegiate School)

Ruby Duffy (Southland Girls’ High School)

Ruby Flannery (St Hilda’s Collegiate School)

Teuila Tasi-Cordtz (Otago Girls’ High School)       

Article added: Wednesday 22 November 2023