Kia koutou e te whānau handball
With the beach season starting in the new year, I want to give the community an update on the coming year.
Falling agonisingly close in both the Men’s and Women’s Oceania Championships the team’s both came runners up. This has given us a great opportunity to build on our current base and develop new talent nationally, looking to bounce back in the 2025 Oceania Championships. History has taught us that it is important to be ready to take any opportunities that arrive so all our high performance players need to be in tip top shape.
It is imperative that we keep driving the momentum and growing the NZ Beach Handball scene. The NZHF Beach Handball stakeholders have met and discussed how to best move forward and we are excited to share what’s in store for the coming season.
As the campaign reached a natural hold point we want to re-open selection in both high performance squads to ensure that we provide pathways for all beach players to perform at the highest level. All camps will be open selection camps. If you are interested in participating in the high performance programme please reach out to beach@handball.org.nz or Willy Silcock directly.
On a similar note we are looking to gather expressions of interest for coaching and Managing of the the men’s and women’s national teams as well as Youth Coaching and Management. Please fill out the following form by the 21st of January to be considered.
We believe that the blueprint developed last year was a great building block. The season ahead will be formatted in a similar fashion, with one notable change. We have decided to use this year to trial a slightly different format for North vs. South to be completed over a weekend rather than working it into 3 different events. This will allow for consistency of teams and reduce travel implications for players. All events that are solidified have been loaded into our events page with further details on each event and how it will be run.
On a final note there will be a focused effort on regional growth this year to provide high value training and player pathways for all. It’s going to be an exciting year ahead for Beach Handball!
Looking forward to seeing you all out on the sand soon,
Ngā Mihi Nui,
Willy Silcock
NZHF Executive Board Member (Beach Handball Portfolio)