Kia ora koutou, New Zealand Handball Whanau
First update of the year, and already there’s been plenty happening, on and off the court, indoor and outdoor. The current red light setting makes things a bit challenging, but it is good to see the handball community getting on with it.
The key national initiative we are working on at present is Easter’s Junior Cup at the ASB Centre (16 and 17 April). That’s a club-based tournament for Under 18 boys (born 2004 or later) and Under 19 girls (born 2003 or later). This will be a New Zealand Rep selection event to identify talent to represent us for the anticipated IHF Trophy qualifiers later in the year – the international programme is still up in the air, but if we don’t put in the spadework now we won’t have anything to build on if the Trophy goes ahead. It would be fantastic to see some good numbers taking part at Easter.
One area where we have been seeing good numbers (when weather and COVID-19 infections have permitted!) has been the Beach programme in Christchurch, which has continued the success of last year’s programme. The weekend ahead sees the annual Beach Club champs which should be a doozy – catch all the action live at NZ Handball Live (Click here for the livestream link for 26 February). Championship Details can be found in the Facebook Event
The High Performance Programme for our national training squads kicked off at the end of January with a weekend camp coordinated by Tim Rayner, who had his work cut out juggling both the Men and the Women’s squads. It was tremendous to see players from Auckland to Invercargill gathering for this first hit out, with some encouraging signs. International opportunities may still be limited for the next wee while, but we remain hopeful of pulling off a Trans-Tasman clash later in the year.
On the admin front the NZHF has decided to move away from the previous approach of levying subs from clubs based on numbers of players and the level each player participated in. Each club will still be levied an affiliation fee, but instead of charging additional subs per player we will just levy a sub per adult team training or playing under the club’s banner. This will hopefully make life simpler for both us and the clubs to administer. The NZHF Treasurer will be in touch with clubs to confirm details.
We are also looking to tighten up on player registration and transfer processes, to better align with IHF rules. All players recognised as registered with a club last year (which formed the basis of the subs we levied last year) have been recorded by our membership registrar, with those details forming the provisional base of for us to determine club affiliations to start 2022 from. Transfers from one club to another are able to be freely made up until the end of May each year simply by notifying us at membership@handball.org.nz. After that date transfers between clubs require approval of the NZHF. Free transfers commence again at the end of the year.
That’s about it for now. Check out the NZHF website for the latest schedule of handball events taking place this year. In addition to an intensive final month of the Beach handball programme, we have the prospect of the Aussie beach handball club champs later in April. That won’t be part of the NZHF High Performance programme, but hopefully our wonderful beach handball enthusiasts will be able to organise a team to head across the ditch to take part. Other than that, the next big handball event on the New Zealand indoor front is the annual Queenstown Tournament 9-10 April. Book your tickets now!
All the best
David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation