The Beautiful Game
......played wonderfully by *all* of our girls in Yr 6 today. 15 Honeywell Netballers from Year 6 were waiting patiently in the playground to be transported to L'ecole du Battersea's Sports Hall yesterday. Thanks to our parent drivers generously giving up their time, our girls arrived safely and early, giving us time to jump on court, as to be honest, we haven't had our usual training in January, due to other commitments and the weather (I wasn't concerned, but you know, when children don't practice something they can often be a little rusty....)
Walking into the Sports Hall our netballers popped their belongings to the side, and ran on court (without me having to say a word) and started warming up. I was have a quick conversation with a parent, and it took me a few minutes to realise what had happened. The entire squad were working together seamlessly as a team, I have no idea who initiated the warm up but I do know that what I observed, was 15 girls who all knew exactly what was required of them, and delivered a warm up that replicated one I'd use, they all kept in a line, no racing, no "I'm in charge" just a simple, effective and professional-looking warm up. It was impressive! As parents, you shouldn't underestimate how long it takes (competitive) children to learn to stop racing each other to the end of the court to 'win' a warm up....but your daughters totally nailed it yesterday!
Taking the balls, I gave the girls their more usual positions to play a full court game (I think I've mentioned they've not played much this month, and L'ecole du Battersea had already competed in the High 5 tournament this week, so were match ready), and started them off in a game to see what I needed to remind them to do on court when our opponents arrived. Well, I underestimated our netballers.....they looked brilliant on court, settled in to position quickly, no crowding around the ball, plenty of moving into space to create opportunities to pass, and goals being shot in both (full height) posts.
L'ecole du Battersea arrived, and as their team popped their bags on the side, our girls continued to play - torn between the immense pride I felt watching end to end netball, with very few errors, and trying not to intimidate our opponents who had kindly invited us, I left Honeywell's netballers on court a few more minutes :-) A quick huddle as our opponents bibbed up, and an explantation that they would start with the bibs they had on, but I would most certainly be using this match to play the girls in as many positions as possible to balance the scoreline, but also to give those playing next week in the High 5 tournament a chance to play something completely different, the yellow team walked out on court.
Our blue team, who were playing next, asked for whistles a scorecard and I handed them my timer. Another proud moment, girls who when they head to secondary school, have the confidence to score (correctly), umpire intelligently (they were much more "observant" and diligent when Honeywell made errors on court, than L'ecole du Battersea, understanding quickly who were the more 'schooled') and know how to time a match, will stand out at training and matches, and I have no doubt that each and every Honeywell netballer will trial for their secondary school teams (with significant success) because their netball knowledge will be far stronger than many of their counterparts.
So, for the first 2 minutes I umpired, and then the blue umpires (your daughters) took control, two on either side of the court, encouraging each other, and improving their umpiring as the match unfolded. Great movement up and down the line, crossing the court diagonally across the attacking circle, and keeping up with play.
Suffice to say, overall Honeywell outperformed against L'ecole 22-6 (broken down to Yellows 10-2 & Blues 12-4) across the quarters (and all the girls who wanted to umpired, timed and scored to the same high standard the first umpires set):
Yellows: 2-0, 3-0, 2-2, 3-0
And for the blues: 4-0, 2-3, 6-1
At which stage we had to stop, as we'd run out time...to be honest, I could have watched them all afternoon - but the lure of apple juice and biscuits as 'tea' was strong!
As you know, usually I provide you with a match report that details the match with far more focus on the rate of play and the movement of the ball, but yesterday, it just flowed, many interceptions (from Honeywell) confident centre passes, plenty of accurate shots (even from those who don't usually play GA/GS), a desire to chase every ball, limited footwork and very little hanging on that pesky transverse line (one of my pet frustrations). Players of the match (nominated by our opponents) were Olivia H and Alex S, but as I said to all 15 netballers at the end of the match both (entire) teams were my players of the match, because they all worked together to achieve a strong result, and quite simply showed me what exceptional netball looks like when delivered by truly excellent netballers!
About 4 minutes into the second game, one of our girls came up to me and questioned the fact that we didn't have any boys on our teams, but L'ecole had two....my response... "Take a look, do you think you need the boys any more?"
As the mother of one of those boys, we will most certainly invite them to play with us again, but not at every match!
The flow, basics, heading towards the goal, umpiring on the sidelines, scoring, taking an active interest - I could go on, enough now - well done to the girls, PLEASE, PLEASE return the freshly laundered kit to the top hall (box outside the blue doors of the cupboard ASAP!
One very proud Coach.
