Congratulations to Grace Joblin and Samantha McNamee, two Year 13 students, for gaining their zone theory umpiring badges. Both girls are well-respected umpires within the Howick Pakuranga Netball Club, AMI and the Sancta Maria netball community. They are both netball players with Grace being in the Sancta Maria College 1 team and Samantha in the Year 13 social team.
The two students achieved their zone theory after completing four sessions with Amelia Chambers, where they practiced past questions and thoroughly read the netball rule book. All of this was done to prepare themselves for the forty-five question test. The girls had an hour and a half to finish all questions finding out whether they passed the test straight afterwards. Samantha and Grace only got one question wrong each, achieving very high marks.
Grace states that she wanted to do the test so that she can gain more experience and develop as a young aspiring umpire adding that, “the pay increase is also an advantage.” She wants to continue to see how she can progress and grow as an umpire and to be able to umpire higher grades and levels of netball. At present Grace can umpire senior and college levels of netball. However, she hopes to work towards achieving her zone practical in the near future so that she can umpire premier levels of netball.
Samantha says that when she was doing the test, she had to “think logically and back herself.” Like Grace, she hopes to grow and increase her umpiring ability so that she can move onto umpiring higher level games. Samantha added that she will continue to help Leanne Farmer (Sancta Maria Netball Club President) with allocation and hopes to go for her zone practical soon.
We give our best wishes to Samantha and Grace as they continue to develop their netball umpiring skills and hope that they achieve their future umpiring goals.
Mia Gilchrist
