Erin Tasker. Photo supplied.Mid Canterbury Netball has recently welcomed a new centre manager to their team, but she’s no stranger to the local netball scene.

Erin Tasker comes to the role from a background in media, having spent much of the past 17 years writing for newspapers in Mid Canterbury.

That’s meant many a Saturday afternoon in years gone by, and Thursday nights in more recent years, spent sideline at the Mid Canterbury Netball premier competition taking notes and photos.

“Someone said to me during the last netball season that I must dread having to work Thursday nights to cover netball, but I didn’t. It was the complete opposite, actually. I love watching netball so it was always one of the highlights of the week,” Tasker said.

The opportunity to take on the role of centre manager for Mid Canterbury Netball was both exciting and a little daunting for Tasker, but it had been time for a new challenge, and she was looking forward to taking a step outside of her comfort zone.

“After 17 years of doing the same job, it’s a whole new world and a little scary, but everyone has been so welcoming and so helpful, it’s made the transition so easy,” Tasker said.

Tasker – a mother of two boys – is one of three employees with Mid Canterbury Netball, joining netball development officer Natalie Shaw, and coach developer Claire Tappin.

Following the departure of administrator Aimee Cosgrove, the Mid Canterbury Netball board decided to change the administrator role to one of centre manager, and bring more of the voluntary work required in an organisation like Mid Canterbury Netball, under the umbrella of a paid staff member.

Volunteers were a crucial part of any sporting organisation, and many organisations were finding that they were becoming harder and harder to find. Tasker said that Mid Canterbury Netball was fortunate to have the good, strong group of willing volunteers that it had, which helped to ensure that the many competitions run throughout the year ran smoothly.

Netball was played by more than 1300 people in Mid Canterbury all year round now thanks to the facilities at the EA Networks Centre. Mid Canterbury Netball moved to the EA Networks Centre from its previous home at the College courts on Middle Road in 2015, and numbers had been on the up since.

Social netball has been one of the biggest areas of growth, going from six teams to 12 after the initial move. In 2018, 19 teams entered in the popular competition, and in 2019 that number grew to 24.

Mid Canterbury Netball’s summer league has also grown at a rapid rate. In 2018 it attracted 32 teams, and in the 2019 pre-Christmas competition there were 40 teams playing at the EA Networks Centre every Wednesday night. A new, post-Christmas Summer League competition will get under way on January 22 and registrations are now being taken through the Mid Canterbury Netball website.

Mid Canterbury Netball want to keep that momentum up and aim to create opportunities for anyone who want to give netball a go, the chance to do just that.

“It’s a great sport and we’re so lucky in Mid Canterbury that we’ve got this fantastic facility that allows us to play it all year round,” Tasker said.

Although she hasn’t played for a number of years herself, Tasker played netball growing up and remembers many a frosty Saturday morning spent at the College courts.

“It’d be so cold that the ball might hit the end of your finger but you wouldn’t really feel it, until a few hours later when your finger was all swollen,” Tasker said.

“Netballers in Mid Canterbury these days are so fortunate to have these facilities, and they’re well and truly making the most of it.”

© The Ashburton Guardian - 8 January 2020