Empire News

Saturday 25th June 2022, Empire Netball Club hosted their annual “Mark the Memories” Netball Tournament at Chesterfield High School in Crosby. This is the 3rd year that they have hosted this charity event to raise funds for the Mark Edwards Foundation (https://markedwardsfoundation.org/). Sadly due to Covid and restrictions placed on Netball competitions during this time they were not able to go ahead with the event in 2020 or 2021.   Not to be deterred, Head Coaches Jenny & Michelle were determined to make this year’s event bigger and better! They proudly welcomed 44 teams from across Merseyside and over 350 athletes aged 9 to 15 to show off their netball skills all in the name of raising money for charity.   Through entry fees, court sponsorship and a raffle, a phenomenal £2583.36 was raised on the day for the Mark Edwards Foundation, a charity they hold close to their hearts. This charity was set up to honour the memory of Mark Edwards, devoted husband and father to Anna and their three daughters Beth, Ally and Tori who are all members of Empire Netball Club after he sadly passed away from cancer in 2017.   Mark loved all sports and was a devoted netball dad; having his daughters and wife all play netball in his honour was the perfect tribute to him. Through his legacy the foundation is able to support gifted athletes with their sporting futures whether that is helping with training costs, equipment or travel costs for competition.   Next year Empire Netball Club will once again be raising money for the Foundation in what will have been the year of Mark’s 50th Birthday, we hope you can join us again for a great day of netball and fundraising. You can still donate to the Mark Edwards Foundation here: Just Giving Mark Edwards Foundation

It’s a well-known fact, no one throws a party like an Empire Party, so we were ecstatic to be hosting our first “in person” end of season party since 2019. At the last party, the club relaunched the newly combined junior and senior teams under our new name, Empire Netball Club. Sadly due to covid, there was no competitive netball for the 2020-21 season. Things got back to some normality for 2021-22, and we were able to compete in the Merseyside Junior League and a Senior Summer League with modified rules to mitigate the risks of Covid. 2021-22 was a season of netball that felt like the good old days, no modified rules and full fixtures September to April. This was celebrated by over 200 members of the Empire Family on Saturday 28th May. Hosting this event for so many people was very special; the room was full of empire players new and old all getting together to recognise their collective achievements as individuals and as a club. Players from each Junior age group and each senior team were presented awards for the following categories: Coaches Player Players Player Most POM Inspire Award Special Mentions go to: - Alex (Empire Rebels), Liverpool League Player of the Season - Imogen (Empire Sky), Liverpool League Player of the Season & Bill Williams Cup MVP - Leah (Empire Force), Liverpool League Most Improved Umpire - Hayley (Empire Rebels) & Leah (Empire Force), Empire Netball Club – Outstanding contribution to club

Our second favourite tournament of the year (behind our very own Mark the Memories of course!) saw Empire take an impressive 9 teams to the Merseyside “Think Pink” Tournament. Every year as the junior league ends, this tournament takes place to raise money for breast cancer research. For the first time since 2019, the teams were able to compete against many familiar faces from the league plus some additional teams from around the North West. It was fantastic to see over 70 girls from the club taking part in the day from age groups Under 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17. Although we didn’t take home the gold on the day, this was critical experience for many of the teams who hadn’t played in tournaments before, especially the younger girls and those who haven’t played in one since before Covid. The coaches were really impressed with how everyone coped with such a long day of netball and their overall positive attitude towards their teammates and the competition. We hope that everyone who was able to join us on the day enjoyed their first Empire Tournament experience and we look forward to having you all with us again for the Mark the Memories Tournament on Saturday 25th June!

This season we saw Empire Galaxy, our 5th Sunday team enter the Liverpool League. Empire Galaxy is a mixture of Under 17s (who have now finished competing in Junior League) and Under 16s from Empire Hope & Light. Sadly as a club we can’t have more than 5 teams in the league – but we can always make space for new players! Having 5 teams to juggle is always a challenge, especially when we need to cover umpire duties as well. Michelle and I love the chaos of Netball Sunday’s and seeing our senior teams go from strength to strength. We started this season with a bit of a shaky start due to injuries across all teams which has plagued us throughout the season, a few of Empire Sky sadly went off to University and I got pregnant! However, every squad pulled together, trained hard and went on court every Sunday with total determination to win. As coaches we couldn’t be prouder of the results for each team, a special thank you goes to all the players who literally “took one for the team” and played out of position as well as those who played up into a higher division. After a fantastic second half to the season, here are the final standings: Empire Stars – Division 1, 5th place Empire Rebels –Division 2, 5th place Empire Sky – Division3, 4th place & Bill Williams Cup Winners Empire Force – Division 3, 7th place Empire Galaxy – Division 5, 3rd place Can’t wait to be back in September for the 2022/23 season! JT & Michelle x