NETBALL - Tournament stirs treasured memories

Auckland teams are expected to dominate the Upper North Island Secondary School Netball Championships next week but the influx of hundreds of netballers to Whangarei has reignited memories of the time when a little-known Northland high school turned the tables on the city slickers to win the national title.
Not only once, but twice, in 1993 and 1994, did Bay of Islands College netball team confound the big schools to win the national secondary schools title.
One of the team's leading players Sharna May said it was so unexpected the first time around that it wasn't until they got home that they realised it was a big deal.
"When we stopped at the old BP at Kawakawa, we knew something was up but when we went around the corner half the town was there with ballons and big signs congratulating us, we felt famous," she laughs.
The next day they were given the day off school and the town acknowledged their victory with a parade.
"Some of us were pretty shy but for most of us it was when winning finally hit home," May said.
The all-round athlete - who was also a member of national volleyball and touch teams - said it was the close, almost family-like atmosphere surrounding the team that made it so special.
"We pretty much grew up together and if we weren't in the same team then we knew each other from playing against one another," she said.
The late Mau George did the ground work with the team but became ill and had to step aside. Fortunately former national representative Maxine Shortland had just moved back to the area and agreed to take over coaching the high school team.
"She actually brought the skills out of us that we didn't even know we had and we were very lucky to have her," Day said.
For Shortland the experience was well worth it and you can hear the enthusiasm in her voice when she talks about the team. It's as thought the final was last year - not 15 years ago.
"Their attitude was fantastic, they'd turn up for trainings at six o'clock in the morning and train hard before they went to school and they all had such good parent support and the girls all had such great physiques ... it was a good time," Shortland said.
But what made the event even more memorable was the innocence of the country girls at the tournament.
"The biggest thing I remember was when we got to the final - the girls weren't worried about playing Auckland Girls Grammar at all, it was the television cameras in their face that scared them," Shortland said.
The Upper North Island Secondary School Netball Championships will be held at the Whangarei Netball Centre at Kensington Park, with 88 teams competing in three grades, starting on Monday at 9am.
* Bay girls aiming to lift C-grade status
Bay of Islands College netball team are hoping to emulate their class of 1993 by finishing at the top of their grade at next week's Upper North Island Secondary School Netball Championship in Whangarei.
The team are in the C Grade competition, along with six other Northland colleges, and their coach, Jonette Chapman, believes a top result will hold them in good stead for next year.
Their presence in the C Grade is not a reflection on their intercollegiate performances this year, rather their absence from the competition in recent years means they have to start from the bottom again.
Only three of the team will be leaving at the end of the year, Chapman said, so a good performance in this year's competition could see them eligible for B Grade or even A Grade next year.
The team finished fifth in the Bay of Islands' premier grade competition, a better finish than last year but one they might have bettered.
"They could have done a lot better but they couldn't quite match some of the more experienced sides in the big matches," Chapman said.
The team fared better against their collegiate rivals this year, finishing first equal with Kaitaia College in a midweek round robin competition against other Northland schools.
All but one of the players in the side made regional representative teams.
Victoria Davis-Dodds was selected for the under-19 Netball North team, while Rowena Davis-Cooper and Hayley Tipene were selected for the Netball North under-17 team that came third in the recent national regional competition. Alexis Chapman made the Aoteroa Maori under-15 squad with all four also making Tai Tokerau Maori netball age-group squads.