KIA ORA KOUTOU, AOTEAROA HANDBALL WHĀNAU!
I hope you have all been able to keep out of the cold this winter – essential travel to Handball games and trainings excepted, of course! No need to hunker down for much longer now – spring is now just around the corner, with plenty of top-flight Handball coming up to warm the coldest of hearts.
But ahead of all the excitement coming up on the court, there’s something even more exciting off the court coming up, in the form of everyone’s favourite annual event: the New Zealand Handball Federation AGM.
Notice of AGM – 8pm Sunday 27 September, via Teams
As required by the New Zealand Handball constitution, notice is hereby given that our 20th annual general meeting will be held via Teams on Sunday 27 September, 8pm. That’s right – time to celebrate the successful navigation of two decades of the New Zealand Handball Federation!
With a number of the OG members still going strong it would be tempting to just get together to take a nostalgic slide show back over 20 years of New Zealand Handball. The plan is indeed to have a wee celebratory knees up in due course, but this is planned the HLA finals weekend in Christchurch in October (more on that later), but first there is a bit of essential housekeeping to get through in the form of the AGM formalities. This will be the first AGM under the more bureaucratic governing legislation we now operate under, so a few t’s to cross and i’s to dot before we can relax.
What hasn’t changed under the new Act is that we will be sending out an agenda with items of business to discuss at the AGM ahead of it being held, so everyone has a chance to consider what will be up for debate. So if anyone has any particular items of business they would like to bring up for members to consider and vote on, please let Rowan know by emailing her at secretary@handball.org.nz no later than 15 days out – so before 12 September please.
On top of any particular items of business, we will have the usual set of prescribed requirements, including our annual report and financial statements. In addition, we have perhaps the most important item on each AGM’s agenda – the election of members to the Executive Committee.
This year we only have Karl Fitzpatrick continuing on for the 2nd year of this two-year term, meaning there are five spots up for grabs. Leanne Dawson and I have reached the end of our 2nd year terms and have made ourselves available for re-election. Iva Sajdl and Rowan Moloughney, who were both co-opted during the year to take on the roles of Treasurer and Secretary-General respectively, have agreed for their names to also be put forward for re-election. Julien Pringot has opted to take the opportunity to step down from the Committee, meaning there are up to five vacancies able to be filled at the AGM. The life members will elect their representative (currently Frank) following the AGM.
So this is your chance to get amongst it! It would be great to be able to welcome at least one new face with fresh energy onto the Committee. If you feel you have something to contribute and are able to commit to sharing some of the heavy governance lifting for the good of New Zealand Handball, please don’t be shy. Please note, only members of the New Zealand Handball Federation have the right to nominate Committee members, and all financial commitments to the Federation must be fully up to date to do so.
And on that note, in addition to the Life Members, it is only fully paid up Club Members who are able to vote at an AGM. For each Club, please send Rowan details of your nominated voting representative ahead of the AGM. While only Clubs and Life Members have the right to vote, all New Zealand Handball Stakeholders are welcome to join – just let Rowan know so we can include you in the meeting invite. Details for the Teams link will follow closer to the time.
Inaugural IHF Nations Trophy – Oceania Senior Women
Not long to go now before the historic first ever Oceania senior women’s Handball tournament throws off at Wellington’s fabulous Ākau Tangi Sports Centre. It is a super exciting event that we are proud to host, and we look forward to putting New Zealand Handball’s best foot forward on the international stage.
We are delighted to welcome 6 other nations from the Oceania Continent Handball Federation to join the New Zealand team to take part in this event – Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, New Caledonia, and Tahiti. This will be the largest international tournament we have hosted since the 2014 IHF Trophy, and this one is shaping up to be just as epic. The opening welcome will take place at 2.30pm on Thursday 10 September, with games from 3.30pm on the 10th, 11th and 12th, and then from 8.45am on the 13th and 14th with the final to determine the inaugural champion Oceania senior women’s handball team for 2026 throwing off at 1pm on Monday 14th.
It has been a massive logistical exercise to work with our friends at the IHF and the OCHF to pull the tournament together. Thanks to our partners and supporters for the event – the Trinity Group, the Brentwood and WCC – and also to the raft of volunteers who have been putting in a big shift to make all the arrangements. Special shout out to the incomparable Jun Tanlayco for his amazing work in getting all the tournament collateral sorted, and Ezer Handelsman and Luke Ireland for all their great work in co-ordinating accommodation and travel logistics for the team. Thanks also to the NZ Institute of Sport who are assisting with the arrangements.
There’s lots more work still to be done, so if you think you will have some capacity over the tournament to help out, please drop me a line. It’s going to be huge, and all offers of help would be gratefully received.
Club Champs 2026
Speaking of huge, but on a slightly lesser scale this year, the other biggie coming up in September is the New Zealand Handball Club Champs. This event is set to throw off at 6pm on Thursday 10th, also at Wellington’s Ākau Tangi Sports Centre, running alongside the IHF Nations Trophy. Big thanks to the WCC Sports Event Partnership Fund for making the event possible.
At this stage it looks like we will have 8 men’s teams and 4 women’s teams taking part, noting that women’s numbers are down this year due to the clash with the IHF Nations Trophy. What it does mean, however, is that Ākau Tangi Sports Centre from 10-14 September is the place to be! You can also catch all the action on livestream as always, on NZ Handball Live.
Final weekend for 2026 HLA coming up
Once Club Champs is over and the excitement of the 2026 AGM is behind us, the next major event on the New Zealand Handball calendar is Handball League Aotearoa Finals Weekend, 17-18 October. Once again this will be held in Christchurch, as the first major handball event at the brand new Parakiore Sports Centre. We will also be hosting a get together to celebrate not only 20 years of the new Zealand Handball Federation, but all that is good about high performance New Zealand Handball. Alongside the HLA Finals, there will be an opportunity for young Cantabrians to give handball a go alongside the counries more experienced players. Further details will be published next month.
Youth Handball continues to grow
But New Zealand Handball is not all just about adult high performance. During the winter months, we ran another couple of hugely successful rounds of intermediate school Handball. It is fantastic to see just how much momentum youth Handball is continuing to build around the country.
In Christchurch another edition of the super-popular Intermediate Schools Tournament was held, with Antoine Desnos and Justin Cope once again doing an amazing job getting great numbers of schools and students involved. That tournament was followed by the launch of the Canterbury Handball Academy, a wonderful new programme that will help ensure that young Canterbury players have somewhere to continue playing, learning and developing their Handball after their first introduction to the sport. It is exactly the sort of pathway we want to see growing around the country.
Wellington has seen similar growth. This year's Intermediate Schools Tournament attracted record numbers, with more than 500 young players taking part across three days of Handball at Ākau Tangi Sports Centre. The tournament has led through to the best teams qualifying for the regional finals, to be held on 27 August, also at Ākau Tangi. The energy, improvement and enjoyment on display seem to have more than doubled from last year, and it has been wonderful to see schools becoming increasingly confident and skilful at the game.
Wellington organiser Frank Stoltenberg also introduced Years 5 and 6 players into the tournament draw this year, with an eye firmly on sustainability within schools. Those younger players can now see a clear pathway to playing Handball again and again as they progress through school, rather than their first experience being a one-off event.
To build on that momentum, the Wellington region has also launched a dedicated youth development programme called LaunchPad, focused entirely on helping young players continue their Handball journey. The first LaunchPad session will commence shortly, with youngsters from across the region already signing up to take part.
Auckland is also seeing some positive development in the youth space, with Josh Bruce-Campbell and Karl Fitzpatrick working alongside Westlake Girls High School to integrate Handball into their Year 11 PE programme. The past month saw over 120 girls introduced to the sport as part of a 5-week handball module developed by the school's PE department. Students must develop their own training programmes focussed on two key skills, before putting themselves to the test with an interclass tournament to close out the module.
It is hugely encouraging to see Canterbury, Wellington, and Auckland building not just successful tournaments, but genuine pathways for young people to stay involved in Handball. The growth in participation, the enthusiasm of schools, and the enjoyment of the players, coupled with the ongoing strength of the Dunedin School league and ongoing youth development initiatives in Auckland, all tell us that the future of New Zealand Handball is looking in very good shape indeed.
The wrap
That’s it for this month. There’s a lot happening over the next couple of months, and I look forward to catching up with all our New Zealand Handball frequent flyers at one or other of the upcoming events, and to welcoming new friends from the wider Oceania Handball community.
David Ireland
President, New Zealand Handball Federation