Annie He/Staff reporter
Netball season has arrived and under the leadership of Patty Anderson, PE teacher and netball coach, 16 junior and four senior female players, most who have never played were ready for games from March to May.
“Girls on the netball team are fun, quick learners and great,” said Anderson.
The team had their first challenge on March 30 at home, competing against North Burnaby secondary school.
During the game, talons kept leading the score and eventually got 37-12. There were 6 periods and 7 players on each team in one game. Clara Beckwith-Jamieson, grade 10 scored the most and said “this was my first game ever, and it was so good. The team is also working really well together; we are so proud of ourselves.”
Anderson said “juniors, there’s still lots of learnings to do. We won by a lot, but we never look at the wins and losses at this time in this year; we look at their game play, and they did very very well. Seniors, unfortunately, we don’t have enough, so what we are doing is pulling juniors up, and the junior girls will be quite tired,” added Anderson.
On April 6, the team lost in the second game when competing with Byrne Creek secondary, scoring 19-41. “We did lose, but we played really well and tried our best,” said Noor Khalil, grade 10.
Khalil also said “the other team was a senior team, most of them are grade 12, and we don’t have enough experience. We need more practice to improve our passing and communication. Also, learn more useful skills from the past players.”
The girl’s netball team had many accomplishments in the past. In 2018, junior girls’ netball won their league and BC provincial championships and was undefeated all year. Seniors also won their league and placed 6th at provincials.
Anderson mentioned, “training is absolutely important and more vital than games.”
The girls have practice after school from 3:30 to 5:00 pm every Monday. As Anderson added, everything is going well, and they usually focus on one or two things per practice, reviewing what they have done and trying to understand what they need to do in the games.
“The practice sometimes is super tired,” said Khalil. “We ran and jump a lot, and every time we practise, we work in passing and footwork drills dominantly because that will help us better follow the rules in the game. Training is also nice, and we will work harder than ever.”
The team will have more games outside the school on April 13 – with results unavailable at press time -, 20, 27 and May 4. “Our goal would be winning provincials again, taking home a banner and bringing honour to our school,” said Paris Rushka, grade 12.