Netball stalwart switches to umpiring

Whangarei's Amie Pooley lives and breathes netball. She has played the sport for 30 years and she loves it.

The 37-year-old played premier grade netball this year for Takahiwai, and she also umpired premier and reserve grade games as well as sitting on the Whangarei Netball executive committee. Her endless enthusiasm for the game earned her the prestigious Whangarei Netballer of the Year at the annual awards following the 2011 season - an honour which surprised Pooley.

"I wasn't expecting this award at all and I was buzzing when I got it, especially when you see some of the names engraved on the trophy," she said.

It was first awarded in 1966, and to have her name on the same trophy as Silver Fern Lyn Gunson, who won the accolade in 1971, was a great achievement, she added.

It was a great feeling knowing she had been nominated for the award by four different clubs, and it was also a nice way to end her playing career, she said.

At the end of the last season Pooley made the very difficult decision to stop juggling both playing and umpiring, and solely concentrate on umpiring.

Doing both was starting to take its toll on her body - she tore a calf muscle while playing for Takahiwai during the quarter-finals, which meant she was unable to umpire the premier final between Whangarei Girls High and Fideliter 1.

"It was quite gutting as Takahiwai were at the bottom of the pool ... it helped me make my final decision to stop playing. I might play again however, but at the moment umpiring is a priority," she said.

While she is a capable player, Pooley found a passion for umpiring after gaining her basic qualifications in her twenties, and discovered she is very good at it, with the potential to reach greater heights.

Recently Pooley and Whangarei Netball president Judy Macdonald scored 98 per cent on their New Zealand umpire theory exam. The Northland pair were the first from the region to sit the national exam in many years, Pooley said.

"I want to take umpiring as far as I can, the next step will be to get my New Zealand practical, where you are assessed by a panel on your overall performance. I'm targeting to be qualified by 2013," she said.

"It's fierce competition at the top, but after I get my practical, my dream is to umpire the ANZ Championships and to get into that pool of umpires," she said.

She plans on giving back what she can to Whangarei Netball, which has been very supportive in both her playing and umpiring endeavours, she said.

Pooley will only have a short break over the summer and starts umpiring from early next year - club games on Fridays and Saturdays, at representative tournaments, the Upper North Island Secondary Schools Tournament and Super Club Tournaments.