by Emilia Norwood, Captain and Grade 10 Student -

In Season 3 of this year's ACSIS sports league , I was very lucky to have taken part in the 19U Netball team. At the beginning of the season, we were pleasantly surprised by the number of girls who wanted to participate. Last year, we were only able to form one team, but the growing interest in the sport this year allowed us to create two. This meant we could register two teams in the league, representing two separate divisions. The advantage of having two teams meant the girls who had more experience could work on improving their performance skills, while girls who were new to the sport could work on developing them.

Soon after training commenced, a golden opportunity came along; we had the chance to submit a team for an all-weekend netball tournament that took place in March at Tanglin Trust School. The tournament hosted many teams from all over Asia, including schools from Brunei, Malaysia and Thailand yet at the time, both of our 19U teams had only played a few games together. To compensate, we registered a tournament team consisting of A and strong B team players.

Our team had a challenging start, facing some tough teams in our initial pool which resulted in us just missing the chance to play for the Cup. However, we were then placed in the plate competition, and our play improved immensely. We proceeded to win eight games in a row, finishing in first place, undefeated in the plate division!

It was an incredibly successful day all around. It gave our team the chance to play together in a fast paced yet fun league, and become more comfortable with each other’s playing styles.

Since the tournament, our A team has played six more games, with a tie, a loss and four wins. These results were good enough to finish third in in the second division which was a great result for us as we continue to grow as a team and individuals. The B team completed their season with a couple of wins which was also a great result. They have grown as a team and will hopefully come back to play next season.

The growth of netball at CIS would not be possible without the help of our coach, Mr. Scott Polkinghorne. He has been very dedicated and never missed a game or a practice. He goes above and beyond the requirements with his constant search for playing opportunities outside of the ACSIS league, and he gave us the chance to participate in a couple of friendly games with another netball club. We played friendly matches against two teams of Sport Ready, a netball association based here in Singapore. Our team ended up winning both games, which was a very good way to end the season. We also received a lot of help on the court from our second coach, Sam Atkinson. She coaches other netball teams in Singapore and has a lot of experience with the game. She works hard to consistently increase our skill level in every game we play, and we owe a lot of our successes to her.