Bright and early on Wednesday 24th of September, we assembled at school to set up for the Ki o Rahi tournament which the Year 12 and Year 13 Sports Leadership and Performance organise for the Year 8 Cobham Intermediate students.

 As Year 12’s planned and organised the tournament, the Year 13’s had the important job of coaching the Cobham Students for 10 weeks building knowledge of the game. The atmosphere of the morning was buzzing and everyone was so excited to get stuck in.

The day began with an early start of 7:30am for the year 12’s. After everyone helped each other to get fields set up and complete our set jobs for the day. The Cobham kids arrived and their cheerful and high spirits made for a successful and fun tournament filled with competitive attitudes and lots of laughs. The games ran smoothly and on time. In the finals we had Amelia McDonalds team and Christelle Harmse’s team playing for 1st and 2nd. Everyone else was crowded around cheering and being so encouraging it was really great to watch. After an intense match Christelle’s team took number one. The prizegiving was great to watch and the kids loved receiving or watching their teammates receive awards, everyone was so supportive of each other and the year 13’s loved handing out the awards too.

A special thanks to Mrs Phillips and Mrs Townsend for helping guide the Year 12’s organise the tournament, to Mr Taylor and Mr Ryburn for being in charge of the Year 13 coaching groups, and the Year 13’s whom did an amazing job! Thank you to Lawrence Tau from Sport Canterbury for teaching us how to referee and be confident out on the field, and of course the Cobham students and teachers for taking the time out of classes to participate in our tournament it was an absolute blast!

- Maisie Gladwell-Hunt