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Disney Netball and Football Tour
Students who attended the trip sent this report:
Football
Day 1:
After a long day of travelling and our first night in the cabins (which were much more spacious than we thought they were going to be!), we were all excited to finally enter the Disney parks. We spent all morning on terrifying rollercoasters (except Mollie and Katie E who were not quite brave enough!) and had a great morning. Our excitement turned into nerves when we arrived at the Maux Centre to play our first 2 matches. Unfortunately we lost our first match (although later found out that they had 2 England players in their squad!) but we were triumphant in our second match. We feel this was a brilliant result considering it was our very first match as a team. We all played really well together and helped each other out during the matches. Hopefully, the more games we play, the better we will be!
Day 2:
The footballers were happy to have a longer time in bed than the netballers who had coaching this morning! After 6 hours in Disneyland going on even more rides, (and more queuing!), we returned to Maux and played another 2 matches to get into the semi-finals! Our teamwork has definitely improved and our hard work has paid off. We are looking forward to the matches tomorrow and the celebration evening! A big shout out goes to Mary Bashford for her excellent skills in football and for being everywhere on the pitch throughout the matches!
Day 3:
We had an early start to head to the Maux centre to compete in the semi-finals this morning. Unfortunately, we were beaten to the finals by a very deserving team who eventually continued to win the tournament. We then lost against the French academy, in what was a very tight game. We were happy to finish in 4th place considering our lack of experience as a team, and as footballers for some of us! We then get some final time in the Disneyland parks before going to our celebration meal at Planet Hollywood. We were extremely pleased to be awarded the trophy for the team to have the best sportsmanship throughout the tournament! To finish our trip, we saw the fireworks and light illumination show at Disney which were incredible and definitely worth the late night. All in all, it was a brilliant trip.
Netball U14 A Team
Day 1:
For our first day in France, we had a wonderful morning in Disney. We later competed in a netball tournament with 5 teams in every pool. We got off to a good start as we won our first match then going on to winning 3 out of 4!
Day 2:
We started the day with some netball coaching and masterclasses. From shooting to ball handling then defending, it was a fun-filled session led by professional netballers and coaches. We also had the chance to have a Q&A session with Mavericks Defender, Jo Tripp! We then had the rest of the day in Disney. It was a great day!
Day 3:
Our last day of netball consisted of the finals. It was a tough day, losing our first two matches by one or two goals. However, we put those two matches behind us and went on to win our last game! Later, we all enjoyed our last day of Disney. At the awards dinner, we received a trophy for coming 7th in the U14 Challenger Shield.
Netball U14 B Team (Mia, Evie, Angelyna, Aoife, Amelia, Ruby, Jess R, Honor)
Day 1:
On Wednesday, 10 April, we began our journey to Disney where we arrived at 8pm. On the first night, we went to have dinner in the Ranch Tavern and when finished, went back to our cabins for the night.
Day 2:
On Thursday, 11 April, we woke up fairly early and got ready for the Disney parks, which we would be in for four to five hours. Later on, we met with our teachers and the rest of the group and got on the coach to the netball grounds. Here, we played four matches, which we won two of. These matches decided whom we would play in the tournament on Friday. During the free slots, we would go and watch our other teams and cheer them on. When the netball finished we took the coach back and went out for dinner.
Day 3:
On Friday, 12 April, we were participating in a netball-training course to prepare us for the tournament and after we woke up, we jumped straight on a coach, which took us to the grounds. Here we learnt many skills including attacking, defending, shooting and ball skills. We even had the opportunity to meet an England netball player. Once the training had finished we then travelled over to the Disney parks to spend more time on the rides and rollercoasters. In the late afternoon, we met with the group again and went back to the rooms where we had dinner and went back to our cabins for the night.
Day 4:
On Saturday morning, we woke up ready for the tournament very excited. We got into our kits and made our way to the netball ground. Here we played another three matches. The first one decided whether you would be placed into the first four teams, which we unfortunately did not win but the next two, we won with great scores! This meant that we came 5th in our group. When we had finished playing our matches, we left for Disneyland again. After the parks we went to the awards evening where we were accompanied by lots of other schools. When we had finished eating, many trophies were handed out in each age group. When dinner had finished and we were back at our rooms, everyone disappointedly packed their bags ready to leave on the Sunday morning. We wish we could have stayed for longer!
Netball U14 C Team
Day 1:
On Wednesday, the team travelled to Disney where we stayed at the Davy Crockett Ranch. As we had been travelling all day we had dinner at the Ranch Tavern restaurant then went to sleep in our cabins.
Day 2:
Thursday morning we went to Disney Chelles netball courts and started our netball matches. Our team lost all our matches that day but we made a lot of improvement over the four matches and learnt to work together. This is the first time we had ever played together as a team.
We left Chelles at 7:30pm and went back to the Ranch to have a buffet style dinner.
Day 3:
Friday morning we had the choice to go to the Disney Parks or go to netball practice. Half of our team went to training and the other half went to Disney.
The half that went to netball made a lot of progress preparing ourselves to win our first match of the Finals on Sunday. The rest of the group arrived at Disney at 1:30pm where we all met up together to enjoy the parks until 7:45pm.
Day 4:
On Saturday, the team arrived at Chelles at 9.00am playing our final 3 matches. We won our first match
1-0 (a very low scoring game I know!) However, unfortunately we did not win any further games, although I believe we played well as a team. I think our team made a big improvement that day and worked our hardest. The team were very proud as we had placed ourselves 4/8. Saturday night we had the awards evening where we picked up a fourth place trophy.
Day 5:
Sunday morning we left the cabins at 8.40am to go to Calais where we got the ferry to Dover. The team did really well and made a lot of progress throughout the trip.
Netball U16 Team
On Thursday, 11 April, the netball teams set off to get our coach for Disney. Unfortunately, as the coach arrived late, we only had a few hours to go round the park when we got there! In the afternoon, our coach took us to the netball tournament at ‘Chelles’. The U16 team played 4 games, winning 2. Our first game was extremely tough but we still fought hard and tried our best. This team went on to the cup final! For the two games we won, we worked well as a team and all contributed to make sure we secured the wins. The team was: Izzy, Jess, Izzy, Zara, Brianna, Emily, and Olivia.
On Friday morning, we headed to the Chelles courts. All the Invicta teams were in a big group and we did many training sessions throughout the morning. We started off with shooting practice, playing a fun game of ‘tutti frutti’. Our next session was a Q&A with a Maverick super league player, Jo Trip. Everyone asked lots of questions and we learnt a lot about how to relax after a game and what kind of training she does to keep fit. Next, we did attacking, then ball handling (which was very fun!), skills and defending. We explored the park in the afternoon this time and we had a long time so we managed to do lots of rides.
On Saturday, the U16 team had their tournament in the afternoon but the other netball teams games were in the morning, consequently our team went round the park. We managed to go on lots of rides, especially me (Izzy G), Olivia and Miss Wain as we had Miss Abbott’s fast pass! In the afternoon, we headed to the tournament. Our first match was extremely tough, with everyone fighting throughout but unfortunately, we did not win. This team went on to win the shield final so we put up a good fight with them. Jess’s ankle rolled during our first game, which meant she could barely walk. Therefore, we had to play our next 2 games with a player down. Even with a player down, our next two matches were a success with everyone working extra hard to fill the gap of Jess. Furthermore, we managed to win both even with a player down! Overall, we came 5th in the tournament receiving a trophy on awards night for it.
