Netball update

Dear Bullants Community,

Your committee are busy in the background preparing for the return of netball. There was a SCNA Committee meeting on 3 June that set out what was needed for clubs to commence training and what a competition might look like. The Bullants Committee met this weekend to plan our next steps.

The first step is for Bullants to have an SCNA endorsed “return to netball plan” for our club. This plan will set out how we will operate in a covid-safe way. Netball will be back but we will need to operate differently. We will need everyone in our community to understand the constraints/protocols and play their role to support the return of netball.

Once we have an SCNA approved plan, hopefully this week, we will update you all on what it means for players, parents, coaches and managers.

We are aiming for a return to training on 17 June, conditional on us being able to do all the necessary steps before then. This involves finalising our planning, sourcing additional volunteers (see below), purchasing new equipment, set up new training arrangements and providing clear guidance to our community.

We will send out the final team lists for netsetgo ASAP as these were not sent prior to our shut down. We will also organise a zoom session for coaches and managers to provide detailed guidance on the new arrangements.

There are some items we need your help with – they do not require netball experience. However, without additional volunteers we will not be able to manage the new requirements on us as a club.

• We will need to shift training times to accomodate all our teams within the social distancing requirements. We are planning for training to start at:
  • 5pm for netsetgo (year 2/3) and juniors go (year4)
  • 6pm for juniors
  • 7pm for inters
  • 8pm for seniors.
  • We may have some flexibility on these times, so please email us if it is a major problem.

• We will need 3 volunteers for each training session to help manage the entry and exit points into the courts. Please email if you are able to help – you will be provided with clear instructions and equipment and will need to arrive 10 minutes before training starts and be able to leave 10 minutes after the session ends.

• We will need a manager for each team to attend training and help the coaches with various duties such as recording attendance, policing social distancing amongst the team, and cleaning equipment at the end of the session. We still require managers for the following teams:
  • Netsetgo: Potawatomie, Meskwaki, Chinook, Iroquois.
  • Juniors go: Sioux, Apache, Arikara.
  • Juniors: Comanche, Mohicans.
  • Inters: Cheyenne, Braves, Kiowa, Mohawks, Navajo.
  • Seniors: Nike, Chiefs, Cree, Dakota.
  • Please send an email if you are able to take on this role.

We do not yet have confirmation of when competition netball will start, but we are hopeful that we will be able to play from the start of next term (ie from 25 July) – once again subject to ACT government decisions. SCNA is also looking to an offering for term 4.

At this stage both ACT Netball and SCNA have indicated they will not be providing refunds for this season as it looks like a competition will be possible. Bullants netball only takes a small portion of the registration fee (less than $15) to provide for umpires/balls/bibs. The majority of the fee goes to insurance and maintenance of facilities – so to ACT Netball and SCNA.

We will provide an update through this blog as soon as we have more information.

If you have questions, please send them to the usual email: bullantsnetball@gmail.com.au.

Bullants Committee