Ngā mihi o te tau hou, Aotearoa Handball whānau!
As we say farewell to another successful season of Handball on the Beach, we are all set to go for another action-packed season of indoor Handball, Kiwi-style. Thank you to all those involved in organising the Beach Handball season enjoyed by many.
An admin focus in this month's update, but the overall calendar of domestic Handball events is fast taking shape and it's great to hear of all the training and preparation that is going on around the country.
Handball League Aotearoa, Take Two and Club Champs update
Super exciting to have HLA 2025 kick off in Hamilton on May 24. Ted Fitzpatrick has put in a massive shift to build on the success of the inaugural league in 2024, and taking our sport to the mighty 'Tron’ is another step in the path to turning Handball into a true national game for New Zealand.
For further details, see last month's post. It's not too late to get amongst it, and as usual all games will be livestreamed for those unable to be there in person.
But High Performance 2025 is not just about the HLA. Everything is shaping up nicely for this year's Club Champs in Wellington, and we are already at the stage of needing to turn away interest from overseas Clubs to take part to ensure the event is able to cater for all our New Zealand Clubs. We are aiming to kick off the tournament late afternoon/early evening on Thursday September 4th this year to help manage player loads. We are looking forward to another great showing of Handball talent. Once again we are grateful to the WCC Sports Event Development Fund for another generous grant that will help us keep registration fees at a similar level to previous years and maintain the high quality of the event.
Player registration
As promised in my February update, our new player registration platform is now fully up and running. The opening weekend of the HLA on 24 May will be the first time we have enforced compulsory player registration on a national database, so please bear with us if there are any teething issues to work through.
The launch of the new platform, partnering with Esportsdesk to make it happen, is the culmination of a few years' work in trying to pull together a system that is easy to use and administer, and cost-effective for us. The engagement with Esportsdesk over the past few months has been really constructive as we built something tailored to the needs of New Zealand Handball, and we are delighted with the end product. If you experience any issues when trying to use the new platform, please contact Julien at membership@handball.org.nz. Even if you don't have any difficulties with it, we would still love to hear your feedback. This is effectively NZ Handball registration 1.0 - inevitably there will be enhancements we can make, but we want to see how this OG version plays out first, with ease of use a priority for us.
Look out for communications from your Clubs for news on how the new system will impact on Club memberships. For those looking to register as a player with New Zealand Handball, follow this link New Zealand Handball Federation - Powered By esportsdesk.com.
Handball resources
The New Zealand Handball Federation is proud to announce the release of six new skill-based videos as part of our Play Handball series, designed to make Handball even more accessible to students, teachers, and parents across Aotearoa.
These new clips follow the success of our first video, Introduction to Handball, launched six months ago. That video provided an overview of how the sport is played and helped demystify handball for schools and families new to the game."
The link to the series of videos is: Play Handball NZHF - Intro to Handball
Constitution review and re-registration
As promised previously, we are about to circulate a consultation paper along with a set of proposed amendments to the NZ Handball Federation constitution. The bulk of the changes contemplated are to ensure we align with the new laws governing incorporated societies, but we are also taking the opportunity to fine-tune some other aspects of our governing rules. There ends up being quite a lot to get through, and we would really welcome feedback from our stakeholders before progressing to the next step.
And what is that next step? Once we have closed off the initial round of consultation at the end of June, we will reflect on the feedback and then release a further final draft of the proposed replacement constitution in time for it to be voted on at this year's AGM in the back half of September.
Clubs and Regional Associations should have all received from us earlier in the year an outline of what is involved in re-registering under the new Act, including a checklist of the key aspects that need to be covered off. All those stakeholders that are incorporated societies will need to go through the same process as the NZ Handball Federation, with the deadline for re-registration now less than a year away. If any of you need some input from us to make it happen, please get in touch.
That's all
Looking forward to the next update when we will have some Handball action to report on!
Yours in Handball
David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation