UNISS – Upper North Island Secondary Schools Netball Tournament

Oceania Umpires from Left - Raijieli (Fiji), Jona (Fiji), Angela (Samoa), Mela (Fiji) and Punanga (Cook Islands)

I’ve just returned from the UNISS tournament which was in Glen Innes this year at the Auckland Netball Centre. The centre was built about 4 years ago and the area is still being developed around it. It is a fantastic facility. Over 20 purpose built courts and 2 indoor courts that can also accommodate indoor netball and soccer etc. The building has space for a cafeteria, physio room, control room and umpires facilities. I was invited as one of 6 Oceania Umpires to this tournament so there were 3 from Fiji, 2 from the Cook Islands and me and we were part of the 100 strong Umpiring team there.

The weather was changeable. Sometimes bright and sunny and other times raining with a fierce cold wind! The netball was fast and clean compared to what I’m used to and the girls have great skills. They were all as tall as trees and very competitive, I’m sure it wasn’t like that in my day!! For the first 3 days I ran up and down frantically trying to follow the protocols and keep up with the game but on the 4th day I received some mentoring from one of NZ’s top umpires and had a couple of “ah ha” moments where things dropped into place. By the last day of the tournament I think I had nailed positioning and anticipating/reading the game so as to be one step ahead. I started to see how it was meant to be and discovered umpiring is completely different to playing the game. I observed some of the top umpires in action and learnt a heck of a lot in a short space of time.

I was super impressed with the way the game was controlled during the tournament. All the umpires from A to C grade followed the protocols and knew the rules equally as well. I found that the 2 of you on a game really did need to work as a team and control things together from before match checks to starting the game, injury breaks, advancing penalties and warning players. One thing I did notice is that the umpires don’t tolerate any nonsense from the players or the spectators and think nothing of awarding a penalty to the opposing team if grief is given. This is something we could do a lot more stringently in Samoa. I did have an incident on my first day with a player being “punched” in the back of the head and ending up in hospital with concussion and I didn’t even see a thing!! Now how can that be possible???

I learnt about “doing hot and colds”!! Basically this is standing in a plastic rubbish bin up to your thighs in icy water for at least 30 seconds. I braved this a couple of times and yes could feel the difference to the aching muscles however it was more like torture than fun as I was sure my legs were going to drop off. I wonder who discovered that this was a good idea for tired muscles??

Now it’s back to Samoa to practice my new found skills and work towards my NZ Badge starting with the NZ theory on the 13th September. Fingers crossed to pass that exam.

USP Open Day

Yesterday was USP’s annual Open Day – another reason why Angela has been so busy recently. There seems to be a lot organise and she has ended up on the Open Day Committee – they seem to have a committee for everything these days!

Anyway, it sounds like it was a successful day. Something that they did differently this year was the cultural performances. Each year they get students from the various countries that make up USP to perform some traditional dance items from their homeland. This has always been done in the afternoon, so those of us at work miss out – although I have been able to experience it second hand thanks to Angela’s movie clips and thousands of photos! This year they held it in the evening, so I took the opportunity to go and watch the performances first hand. For those of you not lucky enough to live here and be able to see the show, Ang will be uploading some photos and video clips soon – but she has plenty to sort through first!

The students did a great job – as always. For us Palagi it is a great reminder of what an important place song and dance has in the culture of the Pacific Islands. And it is a great way to see so many different cultures and compare the similarities and note the differences between them.

I am just grateful that they don't expect this uncoordinated, rhythmically challenged palagai to get up and perform some kind of dance from his homeland!

Weekend Away

Me again - this is what happens when Ang lets me loose on the blog!

In between all of the netball we did managed to fit in a weekend away recently. It was Father’s Day here a couple of weeks ago and in Samoa that means a long weekend! So we headed off around the coast to Le Uaina – this is the same place we went at Easter. At Easter I spent most of the weekend suffering with a bad back (I told you I am getting old), but this time I was fully fit. We enjoyed a very nice few days relaxing and snorkelling.

When I was making our booking I went to their website (yes, they are one on the few places here that have a website) and was surprised to see that some of Angela’s photos from our last visit now appear on the website! Check it our here: Le Uaina That is Angela holding the blue starfish! I think a couple more of her photos are some of the other pages of the site too.

We will be uploading some photos from the weekend to flickr soon.

Netball Update.

Sorry we haven’t posted anything for so long but things have been quite busy recently. All the usual stuff – netball, netball and more netball! So, it has fallen to me to give a quick update.

Angela’s team has been going OK, a bit inconsistent but they are currently vying for a respectable 3^rd or 4^th place finish in the A Grade. There are only a couple of weeks left in the season so they are keen to finish strongly and maybe take out third place.

The USP girls have finished the season undefeated and have taken out the B Grade – thanks largely to ‘Super Coach’. Yes, that’s me! While Angela was away in Toowoomba I had to look after the team. They were all very worried about how they would cope while she was away so insisted that I came down to the games with them. While in charge I helped them to hard fought wins over Hyundai (our club) and St Mary’s, and earned the nickname of Super Coach.

The USP Boys team has been a different story and the cause of a great deal of stress for poor old Angela. They never turn up to training, but then complain that they need more practice. Some weeks they turn up to the courts without enough players to make up their team and other weeks they will arrive with a whole bus load of players. Last week only 1 turned up, the rest of them had been out drinking on Friday night and were still in bed when the van came to take them to netball! I don’t think Ang is keen on having a boys team next season.

And of course Angela is still umpiring. As one of Samoa’s most highly qualified netball umpires she gets put on all the tough games. She is always worried about her performance, but I can see that she is doing a really good job. Last week she had to umpire the top 2 men’s teams. This is a game that has often got out of control in the past, with lots of dirty play, talking back to umpires and even the odd fight or chair being thrown! But last week she was in control of this unruly bunch of fa'afafines and it was a good game to watch. Soon she is off to NZ to umpire a secondary schools tournament in Auckland and after that she will be sitting her next umpiring exam. If only she could but down her Phillipa Gregory and start studying the netball rule book!

As for me, I have only played a few games this season. I have been struggling with a sore knee, or maybe I am just getting old! Not playing doesn’t seem to excuse you from spending all day at the courts though. I still have to watch the games Angela plays and umpires and am expected to give intelligent feedback, and of course someone has to man the club's sausage sizzle while everyone else is busy playing.

Because of my dodgy knee I have only been doing a limited amount of running, but am still planning to take part in the Samoa Perimeter Relay again. This is the 102km relay run that I did last year. There are 3 of us from last years team that are back to do it again, the other 3 have all returned to NZ, but we have rounded up 3 more suckers to join us. The event is next weekend and I promise to post a report as soon as I can.

University Games Success!

So it was freezing cold (yes even frost on the ground) in Toowoomba but none of that could dampen our spirits!! WE WON BRONZE!! I kid you not. It is awesome and we feel like we have done something great for Samoa even if it is just to win a bronze medal at the UniGames Netball competition!! It was an awesome week. Everyone was fairly well behaved (ah hem!! nough said) we fought hard, we played hard, we kept our cool when it was necessary and we did not give up for one minute even though we had to beat "Turbo" who was turbo sized from the University of Southern Queensland 2 team in the play offs for the bronze. Everyone is so stoked. Made all the organising and worrying over funding very worth while. Lets hope this can bring great things to Samoa for University sports. We certainly got noticed internationally by a FISU - International University Sports Fedreation member and AUS - Australian University Sports person both of whom came to support our games once they saw how well we were doing. Here are the results for the mixed netball:-

Gold - University of Southern Queensland

Silver - Griffith University Gold Coast

Bronze - Samoan Universities

Yeeee Ha still riding that wave!!

Samoan Netball

So we have been back in the country only 3 weeks and so much has happened. In this time the girls A team won the netball shield. This is no mean feat and a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. Next game is against the top of the grade and a very strong team so we will see if we can hang on to the log of wood! Of course we had a celebration out that night and took the shield with us around town!!

As well as this we have had the South African team visiting to play 2 test matches against the Samoan National side. Always exciting to have international teams here. The courts never look better. We also seem to acquire new things like tarpaulins to keep the sun out so at least local netball also benefits. Most of us were at the courts working in some way or another. Adam and I got roped into doing the flip chart scoring. I'm sure he was more on to it than me as I was so focused on all there was to watch such as the teams and what the international umpires were doing. Speaking of which, myself and Ioane were asked to umpire the curtain raiser for the first game. This was between SCOPA and SMOGA the top 2 secondary school teams in the country. Always a rival match that one. Anyway little did we know that the NZ international umpires, Faye, Jono and Bobbie, came in to watch our game, assessed us and passed us for our Regional Umpiring badges!!! Very exciting for us as we are now the first ever umpires to reach this level in Samoa. We will see now about attending the clinic in Auckland in September to help us study towards the NZ Theory and NZ practical exams. This honor does not come lightly however as we are already getting asked the hard questions regarding the rules!!!

We - meaning mostly Adam - have also done our good deed at USP and got stuck in and painted the netball court lines. Having waited over a year and having come up with 3 quotes that were all exorbitant it was becoming pretty urgent that we needed a court painted so Adam sourced some road marking paint, make up a template with wood the right width for the lines and we went and measured up and painted the thing on before anyone could stop us. Yellow hobbit feet later (paint overspray!) and the courts look fab. It has been great. Now we can train properly. One small thing to sort out now which is the 2 tennis net poles sticking up in the middle of the mid court however hopefully maintenance will be on to that soon ..... or maybe we will have to wait another year to get them removed. Can't rush these things!! The courts have been christened by USP and the UniGames team ....

Yes there have been 2 solid months of serious organising to take the University Netball Team to Australia. Just yesterday we got that bit more funding we needed for our last bill which is the accommodation in Toowoomba. So we are off on Friday 2nd July to be the first team to compete in the UniGames in Australia. The team are all pretty excited and so am I. It has not been easy fundraising and filling in forms, forms and yet more forms but we have the flights, visa's, accommodation, travel insurance, uniforms, balls, team lineups etc all sorted now and we are ready to play. Think we are all going to freeze as it is 5 degrees over night and 10 degrees through the day in Toowoomba but will let you know how it goes. I hope the 13 young adults I have to supervise behave?????????????????????????

Other than netball ...... well is there anything other than netball? Oh yes there is that work thing that gets fitted in around! Have been asked to re-design the inside of the Alafua Library which is a great opportunity. Hope there is some serious money available. Have to move the counter back apparently and make more student space then see if we can refurbish etc. I am hoping to create more of a "learning commons" space with more/new computers, small and large tables for study, wireless internet, relaxing space and generally make the place look more inviting. Adam again has been a fab help using his autocad skills to draw up a floor plan of the libray and help me plan what would need to go where. Big job. Need to write a proposal. I guess that will be the first task when I get back from Toowoomba.

Take care all. Speak soon xx

PS check out Flickr as will be uploading more photos soon

Go the Manu! and true Samoan Style!

I suspect only in Samoa can a public holiday be declared to welcome home the 7's rugby team and celeberate their series win for 2010?! Well we arrived back in Samoa just in time for this day. Go the Manu we say as if they take out the Commonwealth Games as well we just might get another day off!!

Have spent a great week in Australia for my nephew's 1st Birthday and managed to catch up with 2 long lost friends from the UK at the same time. Managed to make a truck Birthday cake with tray on the back full of lollies so was happy with that. Went to Movie World one day with Mum and Dad and Adam had to go on all the rides! I held the camera! The Scooby Doo ghost ride freaked me out and Batman simulation made me feel sick! The bubbles during the street parade and Shrek in 4D was more my style!!

Now back to normal life which means planning the UniGames Netball trip to Aussie at the start of July in Toowoomba - it's going to be freezing there. In true style nothing happened towards the organisation of this while I was away so now we are full on into fundraising. If anyone out there would like to sponsor us even a small amount that would be much appreicated. We also have accommodation etc to pay for in Australia so....anyone?? Donations of team tracksuits etc also most welcome as these guys are going to freeze and I know even myself I don't have anything warm to wear in Toowoomba!!

Also in true Samoan style we are still experiencing rolling power cuts. These started about the 24th May with campus having no power every afternoon from 1.00-5.00pm and will continue for the forseeable future. We are running out of things we can do with no power and it gets very hot and dark in the library. The students also panic about getting their assignments printed so we have a huge queue at the desk - don't ask me why the library is the only place they can print on campus!! This afternoon however it is raining which apparently means the hydro power generation is all good so the power is staying on - yippee!

Adam also had the funniest trip to the Vet yesterday with old man who will not stay in the boot of the car but prefers to climb over the back seat while the car is moving and even over into the passenger seat. Anyway driving with a dog on your lap is not to be recommended and causes much amusement to passers by!! Old man by all accounts managed to switch the wipers on and off and turn off the radio with his nose when the breaks were put on not to mention slobber all over the place! Adam also seems to have acquired a number of scratch marks on his legs so I wonder why that might be!! All this just to have stitches removed.....