SHS in the News

First Youth Umpires in Netball in the Region!

Netball Captain becomes a qualified umpire!

Both Sheffield High School pupils Jenny Davidson and Sara Akhavan-Hezaveh were whistle happy at the news that they had passed the England Netball Youth Umpire Award at the first ever test of this new award in Yorkshire and Humberside.

Jenny aged 18 of Sheffield and Sara aged 17 from Rotherham took their test at the EIS in Sheffield having gone through the Youth Umpire Award course run by staff in school. This new award is designed to be delivered in schools or junior clubs to give youngsters aged 14 or over the skills and the confidence to be able to umpire netball matches and to give them a kick start to officiating at a higher level. The course is run over at least ten hours and then the students practice what they have learned on junior match play. One of the most daunting things for the two taking their test was that they had to umpire adults in Division three of the South Yorkshire adult league! Experienced umpiring testers Gordon Padley and Rachael Radford, enjoyed assessing this new award for the first time and were complimentary of the level that the girls had reached, encouraging them both to continue to take Level C, the next award.