President’s Update - February 2025
Ngā mihi o te tau hou, Aotearoa Handball whānau!
Better late than never, welcome to another year of Handball, Kiwi-style. Over the summer break your Executive Committee has been working hard on planning for the year ahead, and the planets have now aligned to share an update with you. As always there is more to come as planning continues, but here is a taster of what lies in store:
Handball League Aotearoa
Building on the success of last year's inaugural national league, we are excited to confirm the programme for the year ahead. A key piece of feedback we received last year was that participants didn't feel they had enough notice of dates for events. We have listened, and that shouldn't be a source of complaint this year!
For 2025 HLA kicks off with the first leg of the Southern Shield in Waimate on May 10 and then we have yet another first on 24-25 May - a full national handball tournament being hosted in Hamilton! We are super-excited to be bringing Handball to the 'Tron with a Super Weekend being held at The Peak Sports Hall. We have received great initial support on the ground in Hamilton to make the most of showcasing the event in New Zealand's 4th largest city, just a bit over an hour's drive south from Auckland airport.
Note that with the HLA Super Weekend being held in Hamilton at this time, the traditional Auckland Open has been deferred this year to help people manage their travel budget.
We then move onto the home and away legs of the Northern Shield - 5-6 July in Wellington, and 2-3 August in Auckland. The 2nd leg of the Southern Shield with HLA points up for grabs then takes Canterbury and Otago back to Waimate on August 23 before it all wraps up in Christchurch on 11-12 October. Between those two events of course we have the NZHF Club Champs in Wellington 4-7 September - another chance to showcase the best that New Zealand Handball has to offer, even if no HLA points are up for grabs. The full schedule will be available on our website shortly.
A huge Handball thank you to Karl Fitzpatrick and the rest of the HLA committee for all the mahi put into getting the programme together. If you are keen on taking part, please contact your local regional association.
Player Registration system
Supporting a more professional approach to the way we manage participation in HLA, we have partnered with Esportsdesk to create a Club and player registration system for New Zealand Handball. As a starting point, all those wanting to take part in HLA and national representative squads will need to register on the new platform, but the plan is for the platform to finally provide an easy to use system to capture registrations for everyone wanting to take part in Handball in New Zealand.
There are still a few final details to nail with the registration system, and Julien Pringot and the team will be in touch with Clubs to provide further information and guidance to help get everything loaded up. This has been another big project for us to progress, and we are indebted to Julien for all the mahi he has put in to make the player registration vision a reality.
Beach Handball
Hard to believe it, but the domestic Beach Handball programme is nearly at an end, with the NZ Beach Club Champs to be held at the Pioneer Sand Courts on 1-2 March. It has been a trimmed down programme this summer to help free up space for players to take part in the Aussie Club Champs at the start of April, but once again we have seen another successful summer of action on the sand, with some exciting new talent coming through and a few of the Beach Handball stalwarts still getting amongst it and showing the next generation how it is done. For details, teams, game schedule and livestream, go to our NZ Beach Club championship Event page. Thanks to Willy Silcock for all that you do for our Beach Athletes.
Grassroots Youth Development
Of course, it is not all just about High Performance. As a New Zealand community and participant in the global community that is Handball, a key objective for us is to ensure the next generation of players is coming through that will share our passion for this great game, and carry forward the legacy of what has been created into the future. Again building on last year's successes, we are working on a sustainable framework to support Handball develop and thrive amongst our younger enthusiasts and potential enthusiasts. Frank Stoltenberg has put a huge effort into pulling things together for the future benefit of us all, and NZHF is investing significant resources into this project. We will save details to be rolled out in future communications, but for now be assured that while we place a lot of emphasis on our high-performance initiatives, we remain focused on the future health of Handball in New Zealand
Incorporated Society Re-registration
As if all the action on the court and sand wasn't enough, we also have the excitement of the NZHF constitution review and re-registration as an incorporated society to get through this year. We are well underway with our internal review, and hope to get a consultation paper circulated before HLA kicks off in May. Opportunities to update our governing framework do not come around too often, so we are keen to ensure everyone has a chance to have their say. We take feedback received on board to inform a replacement set of Rules that will be put to the September AGM for adoption.
All Clubs and Regional Associations have been sent a package to help get them underway with their own re-registration processes, where required. So for those with a thirst for governance and governing rules, this is finally your year to get amongst it.
Wrap
That is just a taste of all that is on the go for now - there is plenty of other work going on behind the scenes, and other initiatives in play. If you have any queries or would like to contribute more to what is going on, please do not hesitate to reach out to Leanne at secretary@handball.org.nz. We would love to hear from you.
Ngā mihi nui
David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation