Tēnā koutou, Aotearoa Handball Whānau!
Hard to believe it is the end of April already – a third of the year gone, but plenty of Handball action still to pack into the remaining two thirds of the year.
Handball League Aotearoa
Perhaps one of the most significant initiatives we have undertaken in recent years, Handball League Aotearoa throws off on 4-5 May (Super Weekend) in Christchurch. Played at two separate full court venues (Celebration and Mainpower Stadiums) and featuring representative teams from all four of our recognised regions, Canterbury Handball has served up a fantastic launching pad for this bold new competition concept. Super exciting to have locked in a high performance competition that involves the entire nation with games spread from May to October!
Thanks to all of our volunteers from around the regions who have bought into the concept and supported the launch going ahead. We acknowledge the challenges faced and appreciate the commitment of our wonderful Handball community to make it happen. We also appreciate your ongoing commitment to fill in the blanks between the book-end League weekends in Christchurch, with the winners in October able to claim bragging rights as New Zealand’s premier competitive Handball region for 2024 in either the Men’s or Women’s division (or both!).
If you can’t be there in person to witness the historic opening weekend, catch it on NZ Handball Live livestream.
Gathering the cream of New Zealand’s Handball talent together for the weekend to launch the League also provides opportunity for our National Women’s Team to get together for some early season training with their recently appointed coaching and management team https://handball.org.nz/news/2024/4/15/announcing-coaching-and-support-team-for-the-womens-national-team, and for our senior Men to get together to reflect on what they achieved at this year’s Asian Champs. But the immediate representative focus for us is on the future…
Junior and Youth Squads
Our coaches and management structure has now been confirmed for the Men’s Youth (Under 18 at the start of 2024) and Junior (Under 20) Teams to represent New Zealand at the Oceania IHF Trophy qualifiers at the end of the year (https://handball.org.nz/news/2024/4/13/announcing-coaches-and-team-delegation-for-mens-youth-and-junior-national-teams) We are now looking to build up those squads – while we hope to see many return from the previous campaign, there are plenty of openings for new faces to join the ranks. If you hold a New Zealand passport, were under 20 at the start of the year, and are interested in being considered but have not yet been in touch with the coaches, please check out the EOI registration details (https://handball.org.nz/news/2024/4/20/eoi-for-youth-and-junior-boys-high-performance-squads) or contact high-preformance@handball.org.nz.
We currently have EOIs out for those keen to be involved in the Women’s Youth and Junior squads, in either a playinghttps://handball.org.nz/news/2024/4/26/eoi-for-youth-and-junior-girls-high-performance-squads or coaching/managementhttps://handball.org.nz/news/2024/4/23/eoi-for-youth-and-junior-womens-coach-and-management-team capacity. We were thrilled with the depth of talent that came through last year for the IHF Trophy qualifiers held in New Caledonia, and are looking to build on that with an eye on 2025.
Queenstown and development
Of course, Handball is not just about High Performance. The traditional annual Social Tournament was once again successfully held in Queenstown 13-14 April, with over 40 players taking part. It is one of the more iconic events on the Handball calendar, much fun and camaraderie and a great opportunity for our Indoor handballers to celebrate all there is to enjoy about Handball in a stunning setting. The Sunday mash up of quick-fire, shortened mixed teams games was a particular highlight this year. Thanks to Queenstown Lakes District Council for its generous support of the event, Britt and the team at the Queenstown Events Centre for all their help, the Locker Room for its fine hospitality for the Saturday night social, and Leo and the rest of the Queenstown Handball community for hosting such an enjoyable event.
There are some great development initiatives happening around the country, from Invercargill to Auckland. In the past month NZHF has fielded requests to support new youth training initiatives in Taranaki, Wairarapa, Rotorua and Auckland, which is super encouraging – as is the depth of talent being grown out of Christchurch and Dunedin, in particular.
We are also currently working on some Introduction to Handball modules and coaching resources that we hope to be able to make available later in the year, as well as getting some competition underway amongst selected clusters of Intermediate Schools.
Beach
Sadly, the 2023-24 Beach campaign has now drawn to a close. Another strong showing on the sand, thanks to all those involved, particularly the new faces to the management team who made that happen. The domestic highlight had to be the North v South Championships held at the end of March, with a great turnout of our passionate Beach Handball community. Congratulations to the North Men and Women for a Strong showing retaining the Silverware for another year. Another highlight was hosting our first international side in the “Dirty Pigeons” at our New Zealand Champs. Thanks to the Australian-based side for coming over the ditch and we hope to extend our hospitality further over Oceania in the future. Having a number of teams go over to the Gold Coast to compete in the Australian Beach Handball Champs 18-21 April, with a couple of national team exhibition games against the Australians, was a great way to wrap up the summer of Beach.
At this stage we are still hopeful of getting teams together to represent New Zealand at the Oceania Under 16 Beach Handball qualifiers, currently planned for Rarotonga at the end of August. There are a few logistical challenges to overcome for that to happen, but fingers crossed that will go ahead. If you want to find out more information on this please see our Expression of Interest here (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSccS1hYSWNr-g79OLeJ5Bw34K7bMpRAa96gON5qKaDGUx1dTA/viewform)
Auckland Open and Club Champs
Once the Handball League Aotearoa opener is out of the way, domestic attention switches to the Auckland Open, taking place on 8-9 June. It’s not far away now, and we look forward to seeing another great turnout of the New Zealand Handball Community on the North Shore.
Looking further ahead, Club Champs is all go for 6-8 September in Wellington. There has already been a lot of interest from Australian Clubs wanting to come over and take part, and this year’s NZHF showcase event is shaping up to be our best ever. Club registration details will be coming out soon. Make sure you lock it into your schedule!
We look forward to catching up on a handball court somewhere soon
David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation