Netball on Saturday

** From an email that I have sent to our netball co-ordinator at school. She will be passing it on to the College Sport people for me. So there, HVHS! **

Upper Hutt 14 played netball against Hutt Valley High School 13 on the weekend. At three-quarter time, the score was 41-2 to UHC. At the start of the fourth quarter, most of the HVHS team began to yell loudly whenever UHC had the ball, and screamed even louder when the GA/GS were shooting. They were not yelling out cheers or encouragement - it was just plain screaming. In my opinion, they were not cheering their team on - they were making noise with the express purpose of putting us off our game.

When the ball went over the sideline a few minutes into the quarter, I asked the UHC umpire to have a word to the girls before play re-started. She reminded the girls that this was a competetion game, and to take it seriously. Play re-started, and as it did, the HVHS umpire (a student, and possibly their coach?) called out "no girls, keep doing it!". The screaming and yelling continued.

The HVHS Goal Shoot mentioned to the UHC Goal Keep that they were doing it to put UHC off, and then proceeded to elbow the GK sharply in the stomach, allegedly on purpose. The GK was injured by this, so much so that she needed to call time and leave the court for someone else to take her place. She did not retake the court for the rest of the game.

I talked with the venue manager after the game, and he said I should have notified him during the game so he could have seen what was going on. I didn't think of this at the time, but I certainly will if it happens again.

The HVHS team showed a gross lack of judgement and very poor sportsmanship at this game, and I believe their school netball manager needs to be notified that this is not acceptable.

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Thanks for tea on Saturday, Sarah and Ronnie!! Yum :)