Whakatāne High School’s Sophie Growden was part of a New Zealand Handball team that recently competed in the IHF Junior and Youth Oceania Trophy Women’s Championship in Rarotonga.

Growden was part of the under-19 championship last month, which featured six teams – from Australia, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Fiji, New Caledonia and New Zealand.

The New Zealand team fell to New Caledonia at the semifinal stage, having vastly improved their performance during the series.

The year 13 student said it was a cool opportunity to be part of in her final year at school.

“It was an amazing trip away. The girls that I travelled and competed with were all so nice, and we had a very good team culture, which contributed heaps to our trip being great. Our hosts were very accommodating and attentive to our needs as athletes.”

Growden was introduced to handball in year 9,

“We play a rough version of handball in PE at school. I first played it in PE in year 9, and then in year 10 we focused on handball for the entire year, so I got lots of basic reps from that.

“I found out around August that there is an actual handball league and that we have some New Zealand teams who play. My coach (Jill James) was struggling for numbers for the U19 team, and as it is a growing sport in New Zealand, most of the interest was from under-17 girls.

“Jill heard that our school played handball and reached out to Ben Sexton to see if he had any girls who would be interested in trialling. He put forward my name.”

Growden, 18, admits feeling unsure about attending the trials.

“Mr Sexton asked me if I wanted to go down to Christchurch for the trial, and I was a bit hesitant as it is not a sport that I am very familiar with.

“But I thought, what’s the harm in giving it a go. So, I took the opportunity, and I am glad that I did. After the trial, I had two more training camps (only three days in total) before we left on our trip.”

She was joined in the team by former Whakatāne High School pupil Kaia Hiki.

She said handball was a great game to play because of its speed.

“It’s fast-paced with lots of little technical rules, and it consists of aspects from lots of different sports such as basketball, soccer, hockey, netballand league.”

Growden said it was special representing her country and forming new friendships.

“I felt super privileged to be representing New Zealand. When we sang our national anthem at our first game, it was such a surreal but incredible feeling. Not many people are lucky enough to get the opportunity to represent their country, so for me it was a great honour.”

“Another great part about my trip was getting to meet so many new people. I only knew two girls in my team when it first got named, but now I have made some lifelong friendships and have such great memories with the girls.”

She said she was pleased with how she played. “I think I performed very well, especially for not having had many trainings. I was put into the goalkeeper position and managed to save 75 percent of the goals in our first game against Fiji. The average percentage of saves for a professional goalkeeper is 28-30 percent.

“In some of our harder games, I managed to save 35 percent of the goals, so I was really happy with my performance over the week.”

She is keen to see what handball has in store for her in the future.

“I had a lot of fun and my coaches said I had some natural talent, so I should definitely keep playing if possible.”