Girls' High netballers through to nationals

Rotorua Girls' High School's premier 1 netball team has won a place at the national secondary schools netball championship next month.

The championship will be held in Lower Hutt from October 3-8. The Rotorua Girls' High side booked their place by finishing third at the Upper North Island Secondary Schools Netball tournament held in Papakura.

The team went to the Upper North Island tournament with the goal of a top 10 finish.

''We felt this was inspirational however we had trained well over the past four months so knew we were capable of upsetting a few teams,'' said coach Hinei Taute-Collier.

''Our weekly training consisted of two indoor court trainings, an early morning hill and stair training, umpiring on a Saturday morning, playing a four quarter game on a Saturday afternoon and sometimes a stairs session after that.

''We knew we had to condition our bodies to be able to work at a high intensity for long periods of time. For those that put in the hard yards - it showed in their ability to consistently keep the work rate up.''

The team qualified for the semi finals by beating St Peter's, Waihi and Baradene in pool play, St Paul's and Trident and Hillcrest in cross over games, drew with Aorere but lost to
Epsom Girls' Grammar.

Rotorua lost to Mt Albert Girls Grammar in the semi final, but gained revenge by beating Epsom in the third-fourth play-off game.

The team now has four weeks to come up with the $7500 to pay for accommodation, transport, food and ice so the team is looking for a corporate sponsor for each player.