Summer Tournament Week We had many students travel away during the national summer tournament week. This was successful week with our students representing the school well, and once again we had students achieving highly. We had our usual high performers, but it is also exciting to see several students taking the opportunity to consolidate their learning and training at their first ever national event. We had students competing in volleyball, sailing, waka ama, rowing, triathlon, athletics and mountain biking. Highlights from the week were:

NZSS Triathlon Champs

Ivan Abele                    2^nd u16 Boys Individual Triathlon

Ben Raven                   4^th u16 Boys Individual Triathlon

Ivan Abele, Hannah Howell, Sophie Howell, Ben Raven         

3^rd u19 Mixed Team Tag Triathlon

NISS Mountain Bike Champs

Coen Nicol                   2^nd u15 Boys XC

Sean Onishi                 3^rd u16 Boys XC

James Officer              4^th u16 Boys XC

Corban Nicol                4^th u20 Boys XC

Coen Nicol, James Officer, Sean Onishi                                                                                  1^st u16 Boys XC Relay

Joep Lenoir, Corban Nicol, Sammie Maxwell (Tauhara)                                                           1^st u20 Mixed XC Relay

NISS Athletics Champs

Mia Robinson               2^nd Intermediate Girls Javelin

Jonathan Lewai            2^nd = Senior Boys Long Jump

                                    4^th Senior Boys Triple Jump

                                    3^rd Senior Boys 4x100m relay (Waikato Team)

Swimming Sports

Our annual school swimming sports day was held at AC Baths recently, and while we lacked the big participation numbers of previous years this was well-and-truly made up for with enthusiasm and spirit on the day. We had plenty on offer for our not-so-serious swimmers from the standard bomb, salmon dive, and belly-flop competitions to smallest splash, longest dive, and fun relays – there was plenty going on for everyone to get involved.

Our more competitive swimmers demonstrated their skills in the longer distance races, and we even have a new school record set by Nathan Rowland in the 50m Breaststroke for Year 11 Boys.

Congratulations to everyone who took part and made the day a fun experience for all. A big ‘thank you’ to the parents and volunteers who gave up a day to come and help with running the event.

Swimming

Our more serious swimmers recently competed in the Bay of Plenty Secondary School Champs in Tauranga. We achieved some solid results at the event with individual placings for Hannah Howell and Cuda Tawhai, as well as placings for our teams in relay events.

Cuda was our only swimmer to travel to Manawatu for the North island Secondary School Swim Champs where he achieved some good times. Hopefully we have more numbers attending the national champs later this year in Hamilton where we have traditionally done well.

Mountain Biking

Our Mountain Bikers continued their form from the North Island Champs into the Waikato / BOP Secondary Schools Champs at the Te Miro Mountain Bike park. In rather large fields of competitors our riders stood out once again.

Coen Nicol               1^st u15 Boys XC

Mia Cameron           1^st u16 Girls XC

Sean Onishi            1^st u17 Boys XC

Corban Nicol           1^st u19 Boys XC

James Officer         2^nd u17 Boys XC

Josh Wigram            8^th u15 Boys XC

Cross Country

Congratulations to Cullern and Casey Thorby who recently raced in the BOP Secondary Schools Cross Country event in Tauranga. Casey came away with 1^st place in the U16 Boys race. All the best for the upcoming Waikato Champs.

WINTER CODES UPDATE

Rugby

The rugby season is well and truly underway with a combined team and a Girls team competing in the Bay of Plenty competition.  Our 1^st XV have started their season strongly with two wins from three matches, and the high standards set within the team have created a cohesive unit with a huge amount of potential.

Our u15 team have had a slower start to the season against some tough opposition but have shown some good signs of what they can acheive. The Taupo-nui-a-Tia u14 team have one win from their two opening grading games, the Taupo Combined team have started their season with a couple of large wins.

Our Girls 1^st XV have had two losses, but for a young team have shown some impressive skills and resilience against two well-drilled teams, Tauranga Girls and Litton High School. The girls have been training hard, so I’m certain the wins are coming.

Thank you to Ali Haulage for the 1^st XV T-shirts, and Hard As Rocks for the u14 Jackets. The boys are looking smart.

Netball

We are five games into the netball season, and our teams are performing well to date. Our young Prems team have had three wins from their five matches, and both our Academy and Development team are sitting on four wins to date. Impressively our Year 9 Red team have had five good wins from five games.

Our Premier team, in addition to their 2 trainings per week and Saturday games, also travel to Hamilton every Monday night for matches in their secondary school competition. This is a great opportunity for our girls to play more high school teams in preparation for their tournament in September. A huge thank you to our coaches and umpires for time they donate to our girls; and a special mention to Year 11 student Rhea Paalvast who not only plays in our Academy team but also umpires our Premier Girls every Saturday – you are doing an awesome job!

Thank you to Jess Gordine of Property Brokers for the Premier warm-up tops.

Hockey

Hockey kicked off for all our teams this term in the BOP secondary school competition. Our 1^st XI Boys team are off to a great start with two wins from two matches, while the girls have one win, one draw, and one loss. Mixed results from our 2^nd XI Girls and Boys teams, and our Boys Development team have had three big wins from their three games.

Football

Our u14 and u16 boys have begun their seasons strongly with both teams on 100%-win records to date. Our 1^st XI Boys playing in the Baywide Youth league have two wins from three games, and the Girls 1^st XI one win in their only game to date.

Both our 1^st and 2^nd XI Girls teams are playing in the Wednesday Rotorua/Taupo league, with the TNT 1 team sitting pretty with three wins from three matches, and the TNT 2 teams winning one from two to date.

Rural Interschools Sports Day

Late last term, Sport Bay of Plenty held a one-off sports day for rural schools from our region. 20 students from each school took part in Ki-o-rahi, lawn bowls, ultimate frisbee, lacrosse and several other growing sports. The day was awesome and gave our junior students the opportunity to mix and mingle with Year 13’s and vice-versa, particularly students who are not currently heavily involved in sport.

The focus of the day is most definitely having fun, with some healthy competition and banter thrown in. Te Kura o Hirangi took the inaugural title with Taupo-nui-a-Tia College a close second. The day was a fantastic success and all the schools are already excited for next year.

Coming Up

Coming up later in the term we will be running our annual school cross country event.

While our winter team sports are continuing, there are also plenty of opportunities for students to get involved in individual events – badminton, squash, cycling, gym-sports, and snow-sports. Call past the sports office if you’re interested in any of these codes and want to get involved.

We are also hosting a sports leadership workshop for Year 9 and 10 students on the 5^th of June. This is targeted at students who wish to take a leadership role in their teams or get involved in sports volunteer roles like coaching and officiating. This workshop will be facilitated by the Waikato Institute of Sport and Leisure. If you’re interested, register your details with the sports coordinator.