Boys enjoy court time
When Melbourne netball players the Collingwood Magpies visited his Nelson primary school, Maahaki Niblett was among the crowd of excited children who greeted them.
Buoyed by recent changes in Nelson allowing some boys to play netball at high school, the nine-year-old was excited to meet the professional players during their winning Super Club campaign here last month.
‘‘Netball is my favourite sport,’’ the year 4 Tahunanui School pupil said. He got his first taste of the game during sports lessons this year.
He was looking forward to joining the school team in year 5, but was disappointed to hear that boys didn’t have that option at high school.
However, the regional netball association has altered its code to allow boys aged 13 to 15 to try out for some of their school teams this year.
Nayland College in Stoke has adopted the changes. Its sports coordi- nator, Dayna Whiting, said the rules still didn’t allow boys into the A teams, which competed in the junior South Island tournament, but they could compete in a mixed grade competition. Two boys had made it into the B and C teams.
Collingwood captain Geva Mentor said the situation in New Zealand appeared to be ‘‘more inclusive’’ than in Australia.
She hoped more boys would be encouraged to get into the sport on both sides of the ditch. Boys were also traditionally not able to join high school netball teams in Australia. ‘‘There’s this big gap before these young boys can join the men’s leagues.’’
New Zealand Men’s and Mixed Netball Association president David Pala’amo said men’s netball was becoming more accepted by the women’s
‘‘What’s happened in a year is more than what’s happened in 20 years.’’ David Pala’amo,
New Zealand Men’s and Mixed Netball Association president
association in New Zealand, and he was encouraged that some centres had moved to include older boys in the sport.
After the New Zealand men’s team’s victory against the Silver Ferns in their first televised match in June, at least two regional associations ran mixed league trials for boys at secondary schools. ‘‘What’s happened in a year is more than what’s happened in 20 years,’’ Pala’amo said.
‘‘You’ve got to take your hat off to the Nelson area schools. Some of the other schools need to follow that.’’
However, he said he understood why schools wouldn’t allow mixed teams after age 15, because of physical differences.
Sport Tasman chief executive Nigel Muir said he believed that genders were still separated in some long-established sports because of tradition, and because some people had not considered doing things differently. ‘‘We have to keep looking at the changing needs, changing ethnicities, and changing gender needs of our community.’’