Central zone aiming high to boost code

Netball

Netball Central zone is up and running.

What was labelled a Grand Launch was held in Palmerston North last Sunday and features included the introduction of the zone's inaugural under-23 side and their new logo.

The area covered by Netball Centre is huge, with a player base of more than 40,000, and stretches from Hawke's Bay in the east, Taranaki in the west, Wellington (including Wairarapa) in the south and has Manawatu at its centre.

It is one of five new zones created by Netball New Zealand as part of a new structure for the game with the main objective of aligning the grassroots game with the five professional netball franchises.

Netball Central and Haier Pulse chief executive officer Chris Hooper is confident the organisation will play a vital role in contributing to Netball New Zealand's goal that "every child in New Zealand will be exposed to netball by 2020".

Hooper said the core value of Netball Central was that netball was the "sport of choice" and their new logo depicted netball at the heart of the zone's community. To emphasise this, they had chosen "Poitarawhiti kit e Ngakau" as the Maori name for the zone.

The zone's under-23 team uniform is blue, black, white, yellow and green, incorporating the colours of the region, blue for Wanganui, black and white for Hawke's Bay, black and yellow for Taranaki and Wellington and green for Manawatu.

Squad members are: Stacey McFeeters (Wellington), Laura-Meg McGlone (Wellington), Whitney Cassidy (Manawatu-Taranaki), Jenna O'Sullivan (Manawatu-Taranaki), Te Amo Amaru-Tibble (Wellington), Rhiarna Ferris (Hawke's Bay), Sheridan Bignall (Manawatu), Renee Matoe (Manawatu), Biana Lloyd-Jones (Manawatu), Olivia Dunn (Wellington), Nicola Mackie (Wellington) and Amber Bellringer (Manawatu-Taranaki).