Tēnā tātou!
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Willy Silcock and I am currently in charge of the New Zealand Handball Federation's Beach Handball portfolio. I wanted to give you a quick update on how we are expecting the current summer’s Beach Handball programme to proceed.
Beach Handball already has a strong regional showing this season with regular games in Dunedin, Auckland and Canterbury and we wish to leverage the growth in the last few years to strengthen our presence on the international scene.
Our approach to achieve this is to create a high performance calendar to compliment the great work that is happening in the regions. The calendar has 3 components. Training camps to help develop skills, a North vs South series to develop healthy competition within New Zealand and a National championships to give all players something work towards.
The training camps are available to any players who have a passion for Beach Handball. Experience is NOT a prerequisite. All camps are based in Canterbury. For more details see the Facebook events below.
Camp 1 (19th December)
Camp 2 (29th – 31st January)
Camp 3 (5th March)
Camp 4 (20th - 22nd March)
Each player who is interested in attending camps NEEDS to fill out the THIS FORM. This form is also required for the North vs South series explained below.
The North vs South Series will give all players in New Zealand a goal to aim at as well as a competitive environment to thrive. Any player can put their names forward for their respective squads. Which squad they will represent will be decided based on which club they are registered to in New Zealand. Note that players who attend camps will be prioritised. Any player wanting to considered for the series OR attend camps NEED to fill out the form above.
The peak of the Beach Handball season is the National championships. This will be run as a two day tournament from the 6th and 7th of March. It will provide competitive and social environments to suit all players. To register individual interest please see the Facebook event. It is requested that at this early stage a representative from each region register approximate team numbers using this form so we can start to correctly shape the tournament format.
Lastly a couple of other events of note in the calendar is the Canterbury Handball Mixed Social Tournament and the Wellington Beach Fun Day these are open to all so go have a look and see if you or any of your players would be interested.
I have a passion for Beach Handball so if you want any more information, help on getting Beach Handball embedded in your handball community please reach out to myself via beach@handball.org.nz.
Ngā Mihi,
Willy Silcock
Executive Board Member, Beach Handball Portfolio
New Zealand Handball Federation