HAPPY RETURNS: Club president Genevieve Renall (left), patron Katie Portas and HHSOG Akinas player Louise Addis prepare memorabilia for today's 90th celebrations. PHOTO/Warren Buckland
HAPPY RETURNS: Club president Genevieve Renall (left), patron Katie Portas and HHSOG Akinas player Louise Addis prepare memorabilia for today's 90th celebrations. PHOTO/Warren Buckland
IN an increasingly time-poor world, sport clubs still play a pivotal part in shaping the norms of many different sectors of society.
They don't just offer an avenue for engaging in sport but provide a balcony for like-minded people to visualise a constitution of sorts that helps map some of the values they would like to uphold.
The Hastings High School Old Girls' (HHSOG) Netball Club has withstood that test of time with aplomb as it prepares to mark its 90th birthday at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park today.
As a timekeeper for more than two decades, Katie Portas had been fortunate enough to see three generations of families come through the netball courts at Windsor Park, Hastings, but reckons five generations file through the Percival Rd venue nowadays.
"It is really an evolving sport but professionalism helps them with fees that are quite expensive," says club patron Portas, impressing sponsorship kicks in from an early age.
The 80-year-old life member says members now play for their clubs as "littlies" on Saturdays but also have the opportunity to represent their schools.
The trappings of other contemporary social distractions have posed their share of challenges but what sticks out for Portas is the countless number of people who have selflessly devoted valuable time as volunteers to assure the club's longevity.
"Without them we couldn't have had 90 years of netball," says the great-grandmother, pointing out adults with job commitments still put up their hands to attend meetings and perform voluntary work.
Club president Genevieve Renall says more women take the netball court and play a game each week during winter than any other sport in New Zealand.
It is the enthusiasm for the game, Renall says, that has fuelled the club since its beginnings last century. She plays for the Arataki Kiwis side.
"Not only has the club a strong history for players, administrators, umpiring and coaching of the game, it has been successful at documenting and 'passing on' club records and memories," she says, keen to share the club's rich history with the community amid smiles and reflections.
A display including photos, club records and uniforms through the years will be open from midday to 4pm today at the code's HQ at the Percival Rd park. A Netball NZ representative is scheduled to make a presentation at 4.15pm.
HB netball operations manager Tina Arlidge says HHSOG is one of the most capable, proactive and successful clubs in the province, managing nine teams.
"That's more teams than any club. We would like to wish them a very happy 90th birthday and look forward to working with them for many years to come," Arlidge says.
Portas isn't an old girl of HGHS. She joined the club when she arrived in Hastings in 1964 but had played for CHB before that, although she had travelled to tourneys with the HHSOG teams.
"When I started basketball had become netball," says Portas, revealing the HHSOG netball was a nine-a-side team.
When the club was formed in 1927, Hastings Technical High School was a co-educational institution as the 1922-established school became affiliated as a girls' club to the then Hawke's Bay Basketball Association.
In the late 1940s, before the girls' school was built in 1954-55, headmaster Major William Penlington was a steering member in the process who was instrumental in adopting the Akina as a motto and Huia as a school emblem.
According to history, Paraire Tomoana proposed Akina, the word used to encourage canoe paddlers to "strike hard".
For the school badge, a Dan Ellison suggested the huia, a bird esteemed for its nobility and loyalty. That would go on to spawn a series of netball teams at the HHSOG club named after birds such as Wekas, Robins, Kereru, Kiwis and Keas.
When Karamu High School opened its doors for the first time, the association with HGHS was scratched to just High School Old Girls.
"That was so that girls from Karamu could also play because before that you had to attend Hastings Girls' High School to be able to play for the club," explains Portas.
The club has always had an A team (Huias), evolving into a premier grade one.
"With the arrival of the professional era Hastings High School Old Girls have moved with the times.
"They've gone from being members of the Hastings Netball Association affiliated to the Hawke's Bay Netball Association to becoming members of the Hastings Netball Centre through Netball New Zealand via the Eastern Region, extending from the East Coast to Dannevirke," says Portas.
FLASHBACK: Katie Portas (standing right) coached the 1969 HHSOG Robins team. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
The club started with 30 female players playing nine-a-side basketball. Many of its players went on to teachers' college and universities.
Seven-a-side netball didn't kick in until the 1950s. The club always had many teams but in 1967 dropped to one team.
In 2009 it won the club of the year for the centre regions and produced some elite players.
"The old girls also took up umpiring and we've had been very fortunate to have Hastings, Hawke's Bay and New Zealand umpires' associations," she says, emphasising the club has had several life members as officials in Hastings.
At the end of the winter season the club organises social twilight tourneys.
Portas says the club has had high-profile rugby and netball players as guest speakers at their prizegiving ceremonies.
Flagship team Huias have competed in several Kurangaituku Tournaments in Rotorua, winning it in 1950 after beating predominantly North Island rep teams.
That team, which boasted 1.83m-plus New Zealand rep Dixie Cockerton, went on to win the Matamata tourney. They emulated that feat the following year.
A Huias team also won the Bromley Cup played between North Island centres but narrowly lost in the South Island final to a Canterbury outfit in Christchurch.
The club has also etched its name on the well sought-after Gisborne Cup among numerous Bay crowns.
It took 32 players, complete with supporters, to Fiji in 1984, competing in Suva, Sigatoka and Lautoka.
"We also played a friendly game at the Naviti Resort [Nadi] where the court was mapped out in sand and some borrowed hoops were mounted on pretty wriggly sticks," she says with a grin, revealing the tour culminated with a holiday on Treasure Island.
Portas says when she came to Hastings sponsors were unheard of but sponsorship now provides for some snappy gear and administrative costs.
"On Saturday at the courts Gifford Devine are providing a marquee which would have cost them a lot of money," says the Kia Toa Bowling Club stalwart who won gold for the visually impaired at the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games in Canada.
She coached at HHSOG before filling administrative roles.
"I coached at the third level [Tuis] in the first year before moving to the Huias [1st grade] for two years and then to the Robins [2nd]."
She had major eye surgery after that but that didn't stop her coaching the Robins for four years and helping out the Tuis.
By then the administrative duties had started demanding more of her time so in 1965 Portas became club executive with J Harvey.
From 1968 to 1978, she was the HHSOG rep to the then Hawke's Bay Netball Union, assuming the mantle of club president in the final year before retiring to go under the knife for another big eye operation.
Portas was made life member in 1995 and of the Hastings Netball Centre two years later. She automatically became HB Netball life member from 2012 when the Hastings and Napier centres merged. She became club patron from last year.
