Summer training – for U14 and over this is going well, with positive feedback. Athletes working hard, making new friends, and being ready for the season. For U11, summer training is also working well to get the groups sorted for September. Thanks, as ever, to coaches and admin helping to make these things happen!
National Performance League Tournament (NPL) – U21/19/17 – we had twenty of our athletes from the 2017/18 season appear in various franchise teams, with a number of former athletes also appearing as well. It was a great four days of top level age group netball, and everyone seemed to enjoy their tournament. Jan Hemsley, our Northern League coach, was LBoro U21 coach, and Francine Hall, our prem player, was also coaching Yorkshire U19 and U17. We also have a few athletes traveling to the School Games to represent Yorkshire in the National U15 competition – good luck – this promises to be an amazing multi-sport experience!
England Roses Academy Invitations – following the NPL tournament, Alice Harvey and Georgia Pexton have been invited to Roses Academy Camp at the end of August, with Annie James and Maisie Bickerton also invited to the selection day at the end of camp. Well done and good luck guys. Unlucky to those not invited on this occasion, big message is keep working hard if this is your ambition.
Leeds Rhinos Netball - in important local news, there has been a change in who delivers the formal England Netball Pathway in Yorkshire. Leeds Rhinos Netball applied for a Superleague Franchise for the 2019 season, but weren’t successful because of the ongoing issue of appropriate match night facilities locally. However, in recognition of the strength of the Leeds Rhinos Netball bid, they were awarded the opportunity to deliver the Pathway (which is currently being delivered by Yorkshire Netball). You can read about this on the Leeds Rhinos website https://www.therhinos.co.uk/2018/07/16/leeds-rhinos-netball-celebrate-first-year-anniversary/
Clubs are supposed to form an effective conduit to communicate with athletes about this kind of development, so we are keen to keep our athletes informed. We are aware that not all clubs are doing this proactively, so if you can share this information, please do.
We would encourage players to trial for Leeds Rhinos, where they qualify age wise and are keen netballers. This pathway activity complements Club activity and can complement existing County commitments as well. The pathway will replace the Yorkshire Squads that our athletes have been competing in this season. Leeds Rhinos Netball will be entering NPL competitions in the 2018/19 season for U17 and U19, and school games for U15. For more information, please visit the Rhinos Netball website. Academy Information is mostly out now, but with more to come during August, Hub information will be available from September.
Here are two useful links, with an email address for questions/more information. http://www.leedsrhinosnetball.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/http://www.leedsrhinosnetball.co.uk/performancepathway/
Australia Tour – on 1 August, 24 athletes and 3 adults left Manchester Airport for Brisbane in a long held vision for the Club to take a performance tour to Australia to help develop and inspire our athletes by seeing and playing against the best. So far, these athletes have had sessions with Leeds coaches, guest coaches, watched a top level game, played a local tournament/games, visited Seaworld, had a surf lesson on the Gold Coast, and had some down time to recover from jetlag! They are having the time of their lives, working hard, playing hard, and making memories.
The tour moves to Canberrra to the Australia Institute of Sport (AIS) tomorrow for some serious focus on performance netball and learning in that super environment. They travel so Sydney and Manly! They have a few more matches, and some amazing sightseeing to do, and will hopefully be able to meet up with Natalie Haythornthwaite who is in Sydney.
A highlight so far was that Lauren McArdle got to take the match ball on court before the game between Firebirds and Magpies, which was also the famous Sharni Layton’s last game! Incredible. You can see more on twitter and facebook.
Huge thanks to Lisa Fox, who did the detailed planning for the tour before departure, and to Anna and Maggie for their hard work with the athletes on tour! We are really confident that all the athletes will come back having improved, be ready for the season ahead, made some new friends and have some awesome shared experiences!
2018/9 Season – we are getting to the stage of being ready for the season. The Club handbook will be available soon, fees and any outstanding paperwork will be due, match fixtures will start to appear on the Google calendar, and we will be asking for team managers for each team etc etc! More to follow on this later in August for those who are re-joining us.
And finally……thanks very much to all our members and well done to everyone for a great 2017/18 season, with brilliant things happening both on and off court. Thanks to our coaches and volunteers who make all this happen and provide great opportunities for athletes to develop as players and as people. Let’s do it all again soon!!!!!!
Leeds Athletic Netball Club
www.leedsathleticnetballclub.org.uk
@LeedsAthleticNC