School Holidays - Wrap Up of Winter Sport!

It has been wonderful seeing school sport getting back to normality after the disruptions of the past two years.  We were able to have a successful and full winter tournament week with over 70 events on offer across the motu.  The October school holidays were also busy with the end of winter sports reaching their pinnacle events.  

Basketball New Zealand delivered their championship events in Palmerston North. Congratulations to all the teams that qualified to attend and special mention to Christs College and Westlake Girls taking out the ‘AA’ Championships and Opunake High School and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Koutu winning the boys and girls ‘A’ Championship respectively.  

In other events, Auckland Grammar School took the overall boys honours in the NZ Road Cycling Champs held in the Manawatū, whilst Baradene College of Auckland took the top prize for the girls.  Hamilton Girls’ High School won the New Zealand Secondary School Netball Championships in Porirua, beating a classy St Margaret’s College team in the final.  Other events staged in the holidays were, Curling, Artistic Swimming, Clay Target Shooting, Diving, Scholastic Surfing and Track Cycling and Mountain Biking.    

Results for these events can be found here.  Thank you to all the event organisers who provide such a range of sporting opportunities for our rangatahi to represent their school.  Also, a special mention to all the coaches, teachers and whanau who support students in many ways to attend events. 

We now turn our attention to summer sports with Junior Tournament to be held from 21 – 25 November, 2022.

We have been working with our sport partners to construct the 2023 National School Sport Calendar and expect to release this to schools next week. We will also be conducting our annual census of school sport participation in the coming weeks. It is vital that we have accurate information from schools to help us support sport partners in their offerings and also to continue to advocate for importance of sport in the lives of our rangatahi.

Good luck for to all schools participating in Term 4 events!

New Zealand Teachers’ Games 2022 

An enthusiastic group of over 400 teachers, and support staff descended upon Mount Maunganui to take part in the fifth installment of the New Zealand Teachers’ Games during the first week of the school holidays.  The objective of the games is to re-engage teachers in the joy and value of sport as well as providing a well-being and networking opportunity.  Seventeen sports and activities were offered this year including the very popular 3 balls one cup.   

Club Mount Maunganui hosted 24 teams who competed in the 3 disciplines of petanque, croquet, and bowls.  The Insoll Heroes came out on top after an arduous and tiring day on the greens and courts.  Apart from the other popular sports like beach volleyball, mixed netball, and dodgeball, it was fantastic to see other sports prove to be very popular.  Go Karting in the form of a Bathurst relay race was a highly charged event, where teachers raced for 90mins to find the overall winner.  Congratulations to Hauraki Plains College who took the checked flag.  

Four crews of Waka Ama battled it out over four races in idyllic conditions at Pilot Bay with the ‘Papamoa’ sinkers taking the gold medal – clearly, they didn’t sink.   ‘Have a go’ water sports of stand-up paddle boarding and dragon boating were also popular additions to the games.   

Heartfelt thanks to Luke Frame from Sport Bay of Plenty and Tiwai Wilson from University and Tertiary Sport New Zealand, who assisted with organizing and delivering the games.  Thank you to all the event providers at the Mount and Tauranga who welcomed the participants with ‘open arms’ and displayed some great Bay of Plenty hospitality.  Also, a huge thank you to the support of the Lion Foundation who provided the financial support for the games. 

Lastly, to the teachers and support staff who attended – thank you for your positivity, energy and willingness to try something new.   Congratulations to all the medal winners and make sure you get a chance to promote your achievements at your next school assembly!  

Visit our facebook page New Zealand Teachers' Games | Facebook and website NZ Teachers' Games - HOME (sporty.co.nz) for more photos and results.

NZSS Adventure Racing Championships

NZSS Adventure Racing Champs were held in September in the sunny Hawkes Bay.  Below is a You Tube video which gives you an awesome overview of this fantastic event!