GSA Netball Tour, Condover Hall

October 18th 2013

This year our school had the opportunity to participate in this year’s GSA Netball Tournament at Condover Hall for the second time, this year it involved both the U14 and U13 teams.

We arrived on the Friday to a warm welcome from all the Masterclass operators and soon began to unpack our bags. We were all very excited as Friday 27 September was the birthday of one of our players, so we all wanted to let her enjoy her special day even though we were away from home.

Our first activity was rock climbing, which was a big challenge. A lot of us had never attempted scaling a wall like it before, so the experience was very new and, for some, very scary. I'm glad to say that everyone gave it a go, we all had a good time and reached higher than we ever thought we could. In the evening we had a question and answer session with International Netball player, Sonia Mkoloma. This was a great opportunity to find out more on how to become a better netball player, and the team felt very inspired after hearing about Sonia’s personal past and how she got to where she is now. We also had the opportunity to congratulate Sonia on recently being entered into the Netball Hall of Fame.

Saturday was a day full of netball. We knew that it was going to be hard, but wanted to keep ourselves motivated throughout the day. The morning was great, we played four matches before lunch, and luckily no one injured themselves. The afternoon was tougher, as expected, but knowing that we were being watched by some of the best netball players in the world really motivated us to perform to our best ability and put in as much effort as we could.

The final day of matches was not as long as Saturday, but every team was excited to compete for their categories’ prize. We took the opportunity to put what we had learnt from Sonia and Amanda into practice in our final few matches. As the tournament ended we all sat down to watch the final top two teams play. They were amazing! We learnt a lot by looking at the way they trained and how they were drilled as a team.

Overall, the GSA Netball Tournament at Condover Hall was so much fun for the team. Not only did we try lots of new activities, but we also had the chance to be watched by professional England Players whilst playing the sport we all love. There is no doubt that everyone had a great time, and I really hope we have the opportunity to go next year.

Article written by Jade B (Year 9)