This year we had two teams of squash players who played in the weekly Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Squash competition over winter.

The teams consisted of James O’Keefe, Saya Stratton and Addison Po in the Mixed A Team and Lila Allred, Ethan Garrett, Jacob Tschudin and Julian Zirn in the Mixed B Team.

The Burnside Mixed A Team took 1st place in A Grade and the Mixed B Team took sixth equal in B Grade.

Burnside also took part in three different tournaments throughout the year. The first of these was the Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Individual Squash Championships in May, in which Ryan Gillman, James and Addison competed. Addison took out 3rd place, James 5th and Ryan 6th amongst some strong competition.

The second tournament of the year was the South Island Secondary Schools’ Championships held in Nelson in June. We took a team of three players including Addison, Ryan and James. Morale was high playing against teams we were familiar with, resulting in a very enjoyable tournament. The team had a comfortable win in the first round against St Andrews College but suffered a nail-biting defeat against Otago Boys’ High in the semi-finals, which took the team to an easy battle for 3rd place in the finals round against Marlborough Boys’ College B Team. Thanks to Damien Gillman for being our manager and driver for this trip!

The final tournament of the year was the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Teams Championships held in Auckland in August. This was the first time Burnside had ever entered a squash team into this national tournament. The team consisted of five players, including James, Addison, Ryan, Jayden Owens and Finn Smalley. Being first-timers, everything was very new to us, but we found our feet and ended up having a very enjoyable tournament full of support for each other and helping the players to unlock their true potential. The team came 10th out of 32 teams, an outstanding achievement after five rounds of games. Special thanks to the two Dads who accompanied us as Managers on this trip, Kerry O’Keefe and Damien Gillman.

Overall, the 2022 season was a big step for Squash at Burnside, with it being a minor sport at our school with not many people playing - so we were very grateful to be able to take part in all of the tournaments available to us. Looking forward to hopefully seeing some new faces next year and continuing the tournament streak.

James O’Keefe