City netball pushes ahead
Horsham City Netball Association leaders will push ahead with a winter season as planned, with boys and girls having until Friday to register.
Association president Cathie Weidemann said she extended the deadline a few days to cater for youth who were no longer able to participate in revised AFL Wimmera Mallee football and netball competitions.
“The response to our callout for players and teams has been really good, but we still have room for a few more teams,” she said.
“We are looking for a few individual players to help make up teams, so if anyone is interested, they can give me a call.”
For the first time, the association has welcomed males to join the winter season.
“We don’t have any full teams of boys but we have quite a few mixed teams,” Mrs Weidemann said.
“We’ve had a few boys sign up since teams pulled out of the junior football competition.
“We’ve got boys playing from Edenhope-apsley, Donald and Horsham.”
The season will run on Friday afternoons from next week and include 13 and under and 11 and under fixtures, along with a nineand-under modified ‘Go’ competition.
The competition is likely to be run in two time-slots, starting at 4.30pm and 5.30pm.
The association will also run a Netsetgo competition for children aged five to seven on Wednesday afternoons, from next week.
The association was looking into the possibility of a senior netball competition, but Mrs Weidemann said the idea was on hold because of COVID-19 restrictions on adult contact sports.
“We’re guided by the latest advice from the government and Netball Victoria,” she said.
“At the moment we are focusing on a junior competition.
“We have the capacity to run the season into October, if we have to stop for some reason. When players register we are sending them information about what is expected of them in terms of social distancing and what they can and can’t do on the court and at our facilities.
“We have had a great response and we are doing everything we can to keep people as safe as we can.
“We will continue to stay up to date with the coronavirus situation and act accordingly, but for now, we are going ahead with our season and we are excited.”
People can register for the competition or Netsetgo online at vic. netball.com.au/mynetball or call Mrs Weidemann on 0411 166 914 for more information.