Macklins Newsletter #2. April 2024

Welcome back to another edition of the Macklins Newsletter! We hope you have had a fun and restful Easter weekend and half term! In this edition we will recap recent game results, and detail some important news for the near future, as well as some helpful tips for navigating upcoming exams. 

Our 4 junior teams took part in the junior rally on 16th March, and got a taste of their new competition for the upcoming summer league! All 4 teams played excellently, with 16 wins and 83 points between them! They should all be very proud of themselves, and we can’t wait to see what they do in the upcoming Summer League!

Hurricane | Premier | 2nd 🥈 

Hurricane started the day with a 4 game winning streak, beating the winners of the rally, Platinum (and being the only team to do so), then faced a couple of tough losses, and bounced back to win their final game 22-3! 

POTT: Violet (GA) 

Violet has earned herself Hurricane’s player of the tournament for her consistently strong performance in the shooting circle, working effortlessly with both Goal Shooters and adapting to their play. She is always positive and always has a smile on her face!

Storm | Intermediate | 1st 🥇 

Storm had an absolutely flawless day, beating every team they came against, getting a perfect 30 points! 

POTT: Juanita and Naomi (GK/GD) 

The defensive duo for Storm won player of the tournament from their coaches, for putting in great performances to maintain the team’s winning streak. They worked so brilliantly together that their coaches couldn’t choose between them! 

Tornado | Division 1 | 7th 👏

Despite having a mixed team, Tornado played valiantly all day against tough competition, and amassed 3 wins overall, a vast improvement from the Winter League. 

POTT: Genevieve (GD) 

Genevieve has been chosen for player of the tournament for Tornado for her strong defensive performance. She showed real determination, got some great interceptions and gave the team some important motivation throughout the day! 

Cyclone | Division 2 | 3rd 🥉 

Cyclone had a very strong day, getting 2 wins against some experienced teams, another good improvement from their league results! They are becoming a close team unit and gaining confidence with every game! 

⭐️POTT: Evie (GA/WA) 

Evie earns herself the last player of the tournament of the day for her fantastic effort and attitude today. She had some amazing and consistent shooting, and worked brilliantly to move the ball down court too. 

Along with our new team names for the new season, we have also had a couple of changes in our Junior teams!

Below are the fixtures for our upcoming Junior league, starting this Saturday! Please note the new game times, there are now 3 sessions, with Cyclone and Tornado being in the earliest, Storm in the middle and Hurricane in the last session of the day.

Cyclone

Tornado

Storm

Hurricane

Below are the new squad lists for the upcoming Senior season as chosen by our Specialist Technical Coach Brit from the recent trials. Well done to everyone who trialed! These teams will be updated on Teamo after the final fixtures of the current season.

Below are the fixtures for the three senior teams (now named 1, 2 & 3) for the upcoming season, which commences on 7th May and runs to 6th August providing there are no fixtures postponed. These will also be uploaded to Teamo soon so you can add in your availability.

Senior 1s

Senior 2s

Senior 3s

As we’re sure many of you are aware, exam season for many of our athletes is approaching between May and June this year. We are also aware that many athletes will be feeling the pressure and debating whether to continue with netball or take a break during this time. As a Committee we want to ensure that all athletes know that we will support whatever decision you choose to make and will welcome you back to the club after exams if you do choose to take a short break. Please do let one of our committee know as soon as possible if you are planning to do this, so that we can make provisions for teams and fixtures during this time.

Exam season can be a very stressful time for students, so I have compiled some helpful tips and links that could be helpful to our athletes that are coming up to their GCSEs or A Levels.

As someone who has recently graduated from uni, I am very familiar with the pre-exam and coursework stress, and have found a couple of actions that have really helped me to deal with this.

Firstly, and most importantly, taking part in sport or just taking the time to get outside was massively impactful for me. I know it feels hard to believe that you can take time out of revision schedules when all you can think about is your exams, but I found that taking that 1 or 2 hours a day helped me to de-stress and take my mind off of all of these things, which then enabled me to go back to revision with a clearer mind. Exercising also helped to tire me out which meant I got a full 8 hours of sleep, and made me much more energised in the morning to get on with some more work. Revising can be a pretty isolating experience, but I found staying involved with my netball team at the time allowed me to continue socialising with my friends and talking about anything and everything but exams! Playing netball was basically getting some well-needed exercise and a gossip all in one hour long sitting! I’ve attached a short article which explains the benefits of exercise during exams in a bit more detail below 👇.

Here are a couple of other tips which I used personally during my exam season, and which may work for you:

• Take time out of your schedule to do things you enjoy and that take your mind off exams (watching TV, sport, seeing friends and family, playing with pets, playing games, going to the cinema, going out for a walk, sitting in the sun etc.)
• Make a schedule for your work, and plan in lots of free time and breaks.
• Talk to someone you trust during exam period, use this to de-stress and discuss how you are really feeling.
• Find a study group or work with a friend, this can help to motivate you and can be more enjoyable than working alone.
• Give yourself rewards, and goals that you can work towards.
• Don’t compare yourself to others!! It is so much more detrimental than it is good, focus on you and you only.
• Be more gentle on yourself during this period, it is a stressful and emotional time, take time to yourself to maintain your good mental health.

Here are a couple of other links to help you navigate exam season, and remember, you’ve always got a safe space at Macklins to de-stress and unwind 🖤.

A couple of last bits from us:

• We are still on the lookout for sponsorship, please do ask around and let us know if you can help!
• Congratulations to Millie Hill on passing her assessment and moving up to a C Award Umpire!

Thank you for reading! Good luck to our Juniors on their first games of the season this weekend, and we’re looking forward to seeing you all back at training on Monday!