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 Saturday afternoons and Thursday nights spent on the sideline at Mid Canterbury Netball premier competition games 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,” Mrs Tasker said.
The opportunity to take on the role of centre manager for Mid Canterbury Netball was both exciting and a little daunting for her, but she was looking forward to a new challenge.
“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 easy,” Mrs Tasker said.
The mother of two boys is one of three employees at Mid Canterbury Netball, and joins 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 the organisation under the umbrella of a paid staff member.
Volunteers are a crucial part of any sporting organisation and many organisations are finding them harder to find. Mrs Tasker said that Mid Canterbury Netball was fortunate to have a good, strong group of willing volunteers, which helped ensure that its many competitions ran smoothly throughout the year.
Netball is 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 Ashburton College courts on Middle Road in 2015 and numbers have 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 the popular competition and last year that number grew to 24.
Mid Canterbury Netball’s summer league has also grown at a rapid rate, with 40 teams playing last year. 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.
Mrs Tasker said Mid Canterbury Netball wanted to keep that momentum up and aimed to create opportunities for anyone who wanted to give netball a go.
“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,” she said.
Although she hasn’t played for a number of years herself, Mrs 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.
“Netballers in Mid Canterbury these days are so fortunate to have these facilities, and they’re well and truly making the most of it.”
