Emmanuel Catholic College started the prestigious Netball Specialist Program in 2016, and since its inception it has been a great success going from strength to strength at the College. In 2018 the program is offered to girls in Year 8-12 who have displayed exception netball skills. This year will mark the first year that students in Year 7 will have the opportunity to be involved in a training squad. The training squad will train once a week to try and improve their netball skills ready for Academy trials in late 2018.
Netball is currently offered as a specialised course in Year 8, 9 and 10. These Academy student have practical and theory classes for 2-4 hours per week. Our academy has extended into our Year 11 and 12 classes with two specialised classes, outside of school time, focusing on further developing their netball skills as well as providing them with life skills to assist them in reaching their goals in the outside world. The program offers students the opportunity to succeed in the following, netball skill development, sports nutrition, fitness testing, injury prevention, game systems/strategies, coaching and umpiring.
Coaching Staff
Coaching and teaching staff involved within the Emmanuel Catholic College Netball Academy Program are working towards an Advanced Coaching qualification. Academy teaching staff frequently attend students’ community club, development or state netball games to observe their performance and provide adequate feedback. All staff are continually participating in Professional Development courses and looking at new ways in which they can improve their coaching. One of our Academy Coaches, Zoey Baxter is a member of the Coastal Sharks league team. Coaches often incorporate drills and strategies used by the Coastal Sharks.
Facilities
The sporting facilities at Emmanuel Catholic College are of the highest level. The Sporting and Performing Arts Centre contains a fitness gymnasium, which is commonly used for fitness testing and assessment of players.
A weights conditioning room dedicated to players allows for the introduction and completion of strength and conditioning programs. The state of the art equipment is designed specifically to develop attributes related to netball such as increasing strength, power, speed and aiding injury prevention.
Students are regularly filmed during training activities and games to allow for the continual development and correction of skill technique, tactics and game play.
Tours/Excursions
Over the course of the program, students will be exposed to quality opposition from other schools and junior netball teams to develop their skills and knowledge of various aspects of the game. In the early years students have the opportunity to travel to Melbourne on tour, throughout the later years the older girls will be involved in various camps travelling to range of country locations both play and coach. Students will have a variety of guest speakers from local clubs, Netball WA and the West Coast Fever. This will hopefully give more direction for the students and an understanding of what it takes to make it at the highest level.
Our Year 8 students enjoy the opportunity of travelling to Melbourne to gain memorable life experiences and play against quality Melbourne teams. They also attend netball games, tour various netball training facilities and immerse themselves in a variety of activities Melbourne has to offer.
Camps are provided for other year groups to further develop our students by playing against other country schools in our state.