WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSITY OF
PLYMOUTH'S NETBALL CLUB
WHAT IS UPNC ALL ABOUT?
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The University of Plymouth’s Netball Club, AKA the infamous UPNC, is going to be getting bigger and better this academic year of 2018/2019, with an outstanding growing club with 230+ members throughout 2017/2018. This year, UPNC has 6 competitive teams playing in Plymouth District Netball League (PDNL), the top three teams of which compete in BUCS against netball teams in other Universities, and we also have 10 teams who play socially, against each other, in Superleague on weekends.
One major aim within our club is to ensure we spend as much of our time as possible to raising money through charity work and fundraising, and this year, our chosen charity is Papyrus; a charity who try to prevent the number of young people who take their lives each year. Throughout this coming year, UPNC will be expanding what we can offer to current and hopeful members, offering amazing deals from our sponsors, and chances to gain umpiring qualifications too.
GET TO KNOW MORE ABOUT US
WHEN UPNC WENT ON TOUR TO AMSTERDAM
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Following the many years of success taking the UPNC girls away on tour to a variety of exotic locations in the previous years, our Tour Secretary Emily Haberfield took the girls this year to Amsterdam Spring Break on the 7th-11th of April 2018. This year Emily took 30 girls away to explore the cities culture and what it has to offer, visiting popular tourist attractions such as the Ann Frank House, and tasting the local cuisine, whilst, by night, attending the festival in a variety of Fairytale themed outfits such as The Princess and the Pea, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and on the last night UPNC Rainbows and Unicorns, whereby the girls had to undertake a variety of challenges within the city, attracting attention to the fun surrounding the social side of the club. Everyone started to prep their costumes well in advance when the Fairy Tale theme was revealed, and the Old Girls prepped their traditional tour initiations for their Freshers. How exciting it was to take UPNC abroad yet another year and show the world what we are made of and we are incredibly excited to see what next years Tour Secretary has in store for us all!
“UPNC had the most magical time in Amsterdam this year, Spring Break did not disappoint. The fairytale adventure started on the coach where the freshers discovered the ancient tour tradition of port-to-port which was gracefully won by Gemma Clark and Anna Snow. UPNC then went on a tour of Ann Frank’s House and explored the city, including the Sex Museum. Fancy dress was on point for the whole trip, Charlotte Weldon and Emily Mercer smashed fancy dress every night winning best dressed! I’d like to thank all the girls for the most incredible tour, and a special thank you to all the old girls I could not have done it without you! Excited to see what next year brings!”
- Emily Haberfield, Tour Secretary (2017/2018)
SPONSORSHIP OUTSIDE OF THE CLUB
Every year, UPNC has had a wide range of sponsorship to support our club, all founded by our Sponsorship Secretaries. This year we have been fortunate enough to secure sponsorships with Fresher and Professor, one of the many clubs UPNC has the excitement of visiting to redeem the infamous Terminator drinks, Switch where we secure double-up deals on a variety of drinks, and UPSU for the karaoke and to get the girls rallied up for the socials before they have even begun. Term Time Lets is another one of our sponsors and offers a massive amount of money off their houses to rent if a tenant is a member of UPNC, and most importantly, Boston Tea Party, which means that UPNC members get a whole load of funky food and drink deals that include 10% off at BTP, and a special sports menu at Roundabout. Within the next academic year we will have Emily Rickett as our new Sponsorship Secretary, and she has already started cracking down on securing an even wider variety of sponsorship deals for our girls to relish in, proving that UPNC has the abilities to be much more than just a netball club! Check out her Committee profile to learn more about what she has in store for us.
UMPIRING OFFERING MORE OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN THE CLUB
As a netball club, we don’t only want our girls to grow as netball players, but in every single aspect of the sport. We offer Umpiring courses so that girls can gain qualifications for their possible propsective netball careers and we have had a massive amount of interest from a load of our girls this year. So far, we have 5 girls taking part in our C Award Umpiring course to boost their recognition of match-play under the eyes of our current Umpire Secretary Emily Marshall who has also been umpiring within the PDNL and has so much umpiring background knowledge already, and we have lots of dedicated volunteers umpiring for our Superleague games every weekend. It will be exciting to see how Emily mixes up the Umpiring this year and what she will bring to this important side of UPNC. If you think you might be great at trying Umpiring alongside your netball play then there willbe many opportunities to learn more throughout the year!
A FEW WORDS FROM OUR UPNC ALUMNI
Sophie Minnican, First team, GA 2017
“After graduating from Plymouth Uni, I’ve continued my passion for netball and am now playing for Team Bath! – I absolutely love it, but nothing will compare to my UPNC days and taking that Varsity title with some of the best girls! #blueandthrough.
I’m currentlly working as an Activity Leader at Centre Parcs teaching children lots of different activities. I can’t say I’m missing all-nighters in the library, but I’m definitely missing BUCS Wednesdays and being with my netball girls every day!”
Dola Adegboye, Web and Promo Secretary 2017
“Since graduating I am now working in London for Sleek Make Up doing marketing and product development. Absolutely loving it, as most of the netball girls know I’m a bit of a makeup junkie! But missing the boozy Wednesday and Saturday nights at the SU. 9-5 life isn’t quite the same! Will forever miss UPNC”
Sophie Drew, Vice-Chair 2015
“I’m currently working for one of biggest car dealerships in South Wales, just bought a house with my other half so I’m actually learning how to iron! I’m not playing any netball as I’m still being haunted by an old injury from 3rd year. September 2018, I should be back on court and dusting off the net burners. I can’t believe my Freshers have now graduated and are official old girls! Loads of amazing memories and fab friends made! UPNC ALWAYS #blueandthrough”
Laura Barnfield, 1st Team Captain 2015
“Since leaving Plymouth University aka UPNC, #blueandthrough, I’ve been working in London for 3 years within Media Advertising and have loved every moment; I was lucky that all my best friends are girls that I met through UPNC, so we took a bit of Plymouth to London. I have however recently just moved back down to Devon and have just got back into playing what we know as THE best sport; taking a step back from the boozing city life and getting back into my fitness and love for the game again!”
WHAT WE HOPED TO ACHIEVE
“As Chair and Vice-Chair 2017/18, it was a pleasure to watch our club develop and to see our members excelling in every aspect of the sport we all love, and within University life. We are both beyond chuffed with the hard work that went on behind the scenes from our dedicated and wonderful Committee and it’s been a real pleasure working with you all!
As a club, we were well on our way to achieving UPSU’s Gold ICONS award after the end of first term, and by the end of our final semester, we were awarded with our ICONS for the third year in a row, ticking off the targets on our development plan formed at the beginning of the year. As a club, we constantly got involved with various UPSU campaigns including Green Week and initiating new campaigns throughout the year to show our support.
Within our University year, we offered volunteer coaching opportunities at a local secondary school as we have done for many years previously, raising lots more money for Women in Sport, our chosen charity for 2017/18. Looking to next year we are hoping a 6th PDNL team will be introduced, a move that is spurred on by our ever improving Superleague talent creating a further demand for competitive netball, with the clubs success reaching an even higher level under the future Chair, Grainnie Roberts and the Vice-Chair, Ellie Batley.
Thank you everyone for your dedication and love for the club, and keep up the hard work next year!”
– Bethany Dixon-Cave (Chair 2017/2018) & Molly Somers (Vice-chair 2017/2018)
On behalf of UPNC's Committee 2018/2019, we look forward to seeing returning members, and welcoming new members to Plymouth's netball. Here’s to another fantastic season, both on and off the court! We are excited to see you all at Freshers Fair, at trails, and on our first ever welcome drinks social, and as we all know, the more glitter and paint you put on, the better!
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​See you in September!