Netball has continued to grow in popularity at CIS this year. We had over thirty girls try-out for the Husky team, and two teams were selected to play in season 3 of the ACSIS league. Having two strong teams allowed CIS to participate in two divisions, which introduced new players to the sport. With our top team finishing in third place winning the bronze medal in last year’s season, we were hoping to continue developing our players skills and place higher in division 2 this year.

We were also very lucky to compete in the South East Asia Netball Tournament, hosted annually by Tanglin Trust School here in Singapore last year, and again this year. The tournament, held over a weekend in March, welcomes schools from several countries, such as China, Thailand and Malaysia, and gives our players, practice playing in a tournament environment.

Like last year, the 2017 tournament was scheduled right at the beginning of our season, meaning our teams had only played a couple of games before the competition. But the girls did well, and CIS started strong, remaining undefeated in the ACSIS league in the weeks leading up to the tournament. In 2016 we had registered a 16U team, but this year we qualified for the 19U age group, which meant we would be playing against stronger teams in the international competition. However, this also gave the girls an opportunity to compete against teams that would challenge us that we wouldn’t have the opportunity to play in the ACSIS league. Knowing the skill level we’d be up against in the tournament, we added additional sessions to our existing twice weekly training sessions in preparation.

The games in this tournament are much shorter than standard league matches, which put more pressure on teamwork and decision making on court. We knew that our predictions were correct when our first game on day 1 of the tournament was against the Singapore Sports School, who ultimately placed first overall in the tournament. Also in our pool was Tanglin Trust A (the second best team in the tournament), and although we put up a tough fight, we were unable to overpower them.

We then played two schools visiting from Malaysia and managed to score two strong wins, before losing marginally to Marlborough College. Despite this, we managed to place in the top half of our pool, allowing us to compete in the top division for our age group. Last year, we won the gold in the second division, so it was great to move up a level. Being placed in the first group meant that we competed against much stronger players. This was a great opportunity to work under pressure, challenge ourselves and improve both as individuals and as a team. Our final game of the tournament against TTS B was one of our best matches of the whole weekend.

Our involvement in the ACSIS league and international competitions such as the SEA tournament would not have been possible if it weren’t for our committed coaches, so we thank Scott Polkinghorne and Sam Atkinson for their support.

Mr Polkinghorne has been coordinating our netball programme at CIS for three years now, and has played a huge role in making the sport a bigger part of our school. Sam Atkinson is a skilled coach, player and umpire, and manages several teams here in Singapore. Her knowledge, passion and experience is what has taken netball from an unfamiliar game at our school to one of CIS’ most popular team sports.