A group of young males have proved they can play netball just as good as the girls winning their way to the All Schools State Finals Netball Cup of a new Netball NSW competition.
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The team of nine year 8 students attend St Joseph’s High School in Aberdeen where they enthusiastically joined the boys team to play in the competition, a new initiative this year.
The boys’ first outing was a knockout gala day at Singleton Netball Courts last month where they played against teams from all schools in the local zone.
St Joseph’s was also represented by a year 7 boys team and two girls teams at this carnival.
The boys played six games and finished second overall to St Peter’s Maitland.
This qualified them for the regional finals, which were held at Maitland Netball Courts earlier this month and also contested by one of the female teams.
Again the boys came out firing in the five round games to make the semi finals and the grand final where they came up against St Peter’s again after already defeating them in the round.
At the regional finals the boys beat St Paul’s Booragul, Narrara Valley High School, St Peter’s Maitland, Warners Bay High and Maitland High School.
Being undefeated, they met Narrara Valley High School in the semi final, which after a tight game they also won.
After a close and challenging game against St Peter’s in the grand final, it was 14 all when the final whistle blew and after going into extra time, the St Joseph’s boys won by two goals.
The win qualified the team for the state finals to be played on Tuesday, September 16 at the Anne Clarke Centre at Auburn, Sydney.
The team will play against Oberon High School, Carroll College Broulee and Xavier College Llandilo.
St Joseph’s High School Aberdeen sports coordinator and team coach Abbie Bates said the majority of the boys had played in a boys netball team in primary school and they are all enthusiastic players.
She said their progression has been fantastic as they are training once a week in readiness for the state finals.
“We are proud of all our students’ successes, but being that it is a boys netball team makes it a little more unique,” she said.
“The boys should be very proud of the improvement in their game and their outstanding display of sportsmanship and effort.
“It was an absolute pleasure to take the boys away to the carnival, they were certainly exemplary representatives of our school.”
