Way Back When...

 

Clevedon Netball Club was originally founded in the early 1950's by a group of Clevedon ladies driven by aspirations to keep fit as well as take part in a social

non-contact sport. This allowed them to keep in contact with each other and make new friends as they raised their families in a mainly rural area.

Ladies came from neighboring areas such as Kawakawa Bay, Ardmore and Brookby to join in the fun, this continued for about a decade until sadly it all came to

rest.

However, it was resurrected in 1967, this time as a Junior Netball Club. The club was started for the children from the neighboring areas to compete against

other teams in the Papakura area.

Children came from neighboring areas and schools to join the club some coming from as far as Orere Point where others just popped up the road from Papakura,

Manurewa and Manukau. In those days we fielded future ferns (5 years old) and intermediates (10 years old).

Over time the club expanded to the point where we were featuring teams in most of the age divisions, come the mid 1990's we had these all covered and enjoying

some social challenges at the Smiths Road netball courts. This healthy rivalry continued on until 1997 when our regular team events moved to what is now known

as Bruce Pulman Park. We continue this venture here today.

Its an honor today to acknowledge that some of our current and existing members have their offspring following in those steps initially taken in the 1950's. We

have many families fielding 2 generations within our club.

Over the years we have celebrated many different levels of achievements including members being selected to represent in the Papakura Representative teams.

In the early 2000's we were a force to be reckoned with having 18 teams representing our club.

Over time, with lots of new teams and clubs starting up, our numbers around memberships had gradually diminished. In 2010 we fielded 7 teams. As time has

passed along with challenging times around the global recession and funding we were faced with a shortfall of umpires and coaches forcing us to limit our

numbers.

In 2014 we registered 3 teams.

 

Over this period Clevedon Club has been run by a small group of volunteers like many other sports clubs. Solely relying on members rejoining as well as

sponsorships from supporting companies, the club has stood against the test of time and is ready to challenge the status quo with new leadership onboard.

Our goal is to grow the club to a position of substance as it was once before, taking into account all of the lessons from the past.

 

Our philosophy is that we endeavor to place a member in a team who wants to take part in Netball, regardless of their age, ability or cultural background.

These include players, umpires, managers and coaches. Our aim is to allow members to take part and enjoy the game. Focusing on development, we will provide

coaching and the required training courses to assist our members in achieving their goals.

 

Our drive is to have fun whilst playing the game. It is not always about winning the game but how we play that matters most to us. Although it is nice to

walk off court with a win, we would much rather see our players try their best to play well and learn the team spirit which we incorporate and encourage

in our club.

 

So look out 2015 season, HERE WE COME!!!!!!