The Senior Girls Super Touch team this year consisted of mainly juniors whom were new to this level of the game, therefore rebuilding has been a key focus.

In Term 1, the girls were captained by Freya Aldridge, who did an outstanding job at leading the team on and off the field and gave 100% in every game. In the semi-finals of the Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Wednesday Super Touch competition, we played Christchurch Girls High and, although the girls put up a good fight, we ended up 4th place.

Our first and unfortunately only tournament we competed in this year was at the start of the season at the Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Championships at Sheldon Park on 25 February. Our raw and young team held our own and settled with a well-deserved 6th place. However without a top 4 finish we were unable to progress onto the South Island Secondary Schools’ and NZ Secondary Schools’ Championships.

We continued to train hard after this tournament and again into Term 4. Entering the Super Touch league we were placed in a competitive pool and although we were set to play for 3rd and 4th place, Rangi Ruru defaulted on what was to be our last game for the year, placing us 3rd in the Super Touch League.

This rebuilding season has been beneficial for player development and awareness as the girls have been exposed to very high standards of Touch. There is a bright future for Burnside Girls Touch as this year we now have six members of our team also representing Touch Canterbury.

The Burnside Girls Super Touch team is now captained by year 10 student, Riley Thompson, and she will lead the girls into next year with the goal of qualifying for the South Island tournament again. Our team owes a huge thank you to Graeme O’Callaghan, our outstanding coach, Freya as co-coach and Ms Phillips as manager, for all the time and effort they put into the team. We really do appreciate it.