Kia ora koutou, Aotearoa Handball Whānau!
With mid-winter fast approaching, we are now into the thick of the Handball season, with lots of Handball action around the country to get excited about.
In this month’s update, I take a quick look at what’s been happening on the youth development front before switching to the other end of the experience spectrum with Handball league Aotearoa, and finish off with my favourite subject, NZ Handball admin.
Youth Development
The success of the Intermediate School age regional tournaments in Auckland and Wellington that kicked off last year continues.
In Auckland we had another well-attended U13 Inter-School Regional Handball Championships at the Barfoot Thompson Stadium on 6 June. With over 80 kids taking part and overwhelmingly positive feedback on the event, it is super encouraging for the future of the sport in New Zealand’s most populous region. Thanks to all the volunteers who stepped up to ensure the success of the event.
Wellington also saw an U17 Women’s Inter-College Champs take place in May. While not quite the same numbers as we saw at the younger age level in Auckland, rebuilding the female game in the Nation’s capital is an important spoke in the wheel of maintaining Handball as a national sport. Reports of the enthusiasm shown at that event bodes well for the future.
On 29 July the Wellington focus switches to the U13s, with a three day festival of Handball throwing off featuring 20 local Schools, followed by the Capital’s own U13 Regional Championships on 14 August. Both events take place at the spiritual home of New Zealand Handball, Ākau Tangi Sports Centre in Kilbirnie. Once again, the level of interest in these events has been quite overwhelming. While the high-performance and club side of Handball delivers plenty of special moments to celebrate, nothing quite beats the sheer joy you see on the faces of this younger cohort as they get their first tastes of our amazing game. Thanks to our head of youth development Frank Stoltenberg and his group of volunteers for all you do to inspire the next generation of New Zealand Handballers.
Of course, much of the North Island Handball youth development is just playing catch up with the Mainland, and all the amazing work with our youth players that continues in both Christchurch and Dunedin. The depth of the youth game that has developed in the South over the past decade is quite something, and it hasn’t been by accident as our growing Handball communities of Canterbury and Otago continue to do the mahi to secure the future of the sport. A big shout out to all those involved for your ongoing commitment to the growth of youth Handball.
The next step will be progressing an inter-regional competition at the U13 level. Watch this space for more on that in due course.
Women’s Handball
Moving on to the high-performance side of what’s happening in New Zealand Handball, as reported by our national Women’s Team manager and NZ Handball Secretary-General Leanne Dawson, in mid-June our Women's High Performance programme came together for a joint camp in Waimate, with our juniors, youth, and seniors attending.
The squad were well-looked after at Gunns Bush (although it was rather freezing!), and trained together at the Waimate Event Centre. It was great to connect as a group, share learnings and growth across our women's squad. It was also really exciting to see the commitment and development of our women's players, reinforcing the importance of building a unified, supportive community Handball culture. Thank you to everyone involved in organising this event. Another camp is scheduled for late July to build on the success of the June camp.
Handball League Aotearoa
Our high performance inter-regional competition is now in full swing. May saw the opening super weekend at The Peak Stadium in Hamilton, with teams from Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury opening up the 2025 edition of HLA. While hosting an event in the Tron created a few more travel logistics than usual, it was great to take the event outside its traditional bases, and feedback from those who took part was positive. Hopefully the event has inspired a fresh wave of Waikato residents to ring their cowbells at something different!
Both the Southern and Northern Shield exchanges are in play, with the Southerners continuing to meet at Waimate, and the Northerners playing home and away in Wellington on 4-5 July (when they will be joined by Otago, compensating for the Southerners missing the HLA opening in May) and Auckland at the start of August. All is set for the final showdown in Christchurch in October!
Constitution Review Reminder
Feedback on the proposed changes to NZ Handball’s constitution circulated in April officially close on 30 June. If you still want to chip into the review process, or missed the consultation pack, please get in touch – it is your governing framework, so we want to give all our stakeholders as much opportunity as we can to have their say.
The next step in the process will be a confirmed set of proposed changes being circulated ahead of this year’s AGM in September. Once approved, we will then be able to re-register the organisation under the new laws, well ahead of the April 2026 deadline. For any of our Clubs and Regional Associations who have been set up as incorporated societies who have yet to progress their re-registration process, the clock is well and truly ticking!
Reimbursements
Last up, I am conscious there have been a few delays in processing reimbursements through our system. Apologies for that. We are working hard to try process claims as efficiently as we can, but the system does rely upon volunteers juggling busy day jobs, so your patience is appreciated.
Reimbursements will only be processed if entered online, which you can access from the ‘About’ section of our website here. You can do your bit to expedite the process by ensuring any reimbursement requests are properly populated with receipts uploaded – and ideally just one receipt per reimbursement claim that you upload – and ensure the relevant manager is aware of the claim so they can approve it being paid. Many of the delays are down to incomplete information, which adds to the workload involved. Claims are usually processed every second Sunday of the month, but If you do experience a delay (as in, more than three weeks have elapsed since you submitted your claim), please get in touch to see where things have gone astray.
That’s all for now. Take care and have fun on court.
Yours in Handball
David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation