Te Puke Intermediate School's netball academy members with coach Helena Hoult. Photo / Stuart Whitaker
Te Puke Intermediate School's rugby academy has reaped some great rewards for its players.
Now the school's netballers hope they can enjoy some of the same success.
At the start of the year, the school set up its netball academy under the guidance of teacher Helena Hoult.
The thinking behind the academy is similar to that of the rugby academy which was instrumental in the Te Puke team winning this year's Tai Mitchell Shield.
"We are very talented in this area," Hoult said.
"We've got rugby players and netballers who are so talented and I think we need to start utilising that a bit earlier."
The selected players have had two sessions per week with Hoult since the start of the year.
"Tidying up ball skills and stuff takes time, but if we can do that at the beginning, then when the season kicks in, it's just about developing game sense and game plays."
The 15-strong squad includes Year 7 and 8 students.
"The Year 8s ooze confidence and a real desire to be playing netball and they have that real fight. We need to get the Year 7s in among these Year 8s to show them that this is what it looks like and when [the year 8s] move on to high school, we have a group of Year 7s who actually know where the benchmark is and know what their role is."
Hoult says the Year 8 A side has gone through Tauranga's Harbourside competition unbeaten.
"No one has got close to us this year. Last year was the same, but it was by just two or three goals [each game]. I credit the netball academy that they are now beating teams by eight or nine goals."
The team has also played in two Auckland tournaments - holding their own in winning three from four at the first one then taking out the second event.
"To take them up there and expose them to the sort of netball they play there and the physicality of the girls and their height, they are doing really well," Hoult said.
"People who don't know them are going, 'who are these girls? Where have they come from?'. I do believe [the academy] is helping that - they are talented, we are just fine-tuning that talent."
Fitness is emphasised in the academy and there is a workout session before school each Thursday.
Family support is needed to get the girls to their early-morning fitness sessions and afterwards, they all have breakfast together.
"That's about bringing whanau in. If they know what we are doing here is working, and they are on the same journey, then that helps us get to our goal.
"It's just a really nice culture and I think that is part of why the girls are doing so well - hopefully, that keeps going from year to year with whoever we have in the group."
The acid test for the school team that has been selected from the academy will come with this month's AIMS Games.
The Te Puke Intermediate team won the netball title in 2010 and last year finished seventh out of 112 teams.
AIMS Games start on September 10.
This summer will be critical to discover if the sharks have started returning.