Developing better netball links for the future

HAPPY IN HER JOB: Louise Clarke is the woman in the hot seat with Netball Manawatu.

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New Netball Manawatu executive officer Louise Clarke wants to build a better relationship with Western Netball to improve pathways for Manawatu representative players.

Clarke has been in the job for three weeks after replacing Joy Walden, who resigned in September.

Walden was known as the general manager and the title has been altered, but the jobs are effectively the same.

Manawatu is a large contributor to Western representative sides, who are the national under-21 champions and punch above their weight in the Lois Muir Challenge and the NPC.

Clarke said improving the relationship with Western was important for Manawatu players.

"The pathways we are developing are actually leading into [Western], so it's about understanding what they are actually looking for.

"We will grow that base. We will do that work at this end but we will look at how they can better resource us."

Clarke said better communication channels between her and Western general manager Kate Polson would be established so the associations were working towards common goals.

She said the major focus of her new job wasn't just to improve the high performers but to show how netball was a game for everyone.

There is talk of running a version of Fastnet, the competition that was trialled internationally in England recently.

Plans for a men's division next year have yet to be finalised, and the controversial premier one grading system from this year is likely to be tweaked. But nothing is set in stone.

Clarke has an events management background and has a stake in a contracting business specialising in Maori-based events.

The 51-year-old mother of Jessica (16) and Sam (15) is well travelled, too.

The wife of an air force pilot, Clarke moved to Palmerston North three years ago after stints in Upper Hutt and Canberra. She will be on the move again soon, but only to Levin, and will commute from mid-December onwards.

Clarke has an inclusive attitude towards people involved in netball.

"If someone wants to talk to us, they can. I've already spread the word that our door is always open."

Netball at a regional level relies heavily on volunteers, so Clarke has been doing the rounds, meeting all interested parties in a hectic first few weeks, which she said had been "challenging".

A former representative softballer and basketballer, Clarke played netball in the past, but never seriously, and didn't become involved in the sport again until her daughter Jessica took it up.

She will step down from the Palmerston North Girls' High School netball board and managing the A1 team.

She said the executive officer's job suited her to the ground.

"I guess I'm involved in netball all the time, and for me there seemed a lot of amazing people in Manawatu I wanted to work with."

- © Fairfax NZ News