HBHS win back-to-back silver medals at North Island Secondary Schools and National Championships.

The Senior Premier team travelled to Wellington to compete in the New Zealand Secondary Schools National Competition from the 27th to the 30th of April, 2022.

Our first game was a rematch of our first NISS game as we defeated Rosmini College, 15-11. This was followed  up with a hard earned, 5-4 win over Westlake Boys’ High School which put us into a commanding position for our crossover pool. In our crossover pool, we dismantled Kings’ College 17-9 with Hugo Barbour putting in a dominant 5 goal, 11 steal performance. This put us through to the top four with one more crossover game left to play. We lost the last crossover game to Rangitoto College which placed us in a semi final against North Island Champions, Tauranga Boys’ College. What followed was our best performance of the season, as we came out and immediately put the Tauranga Boys’ team under pressure. Samuel Keightley scored a missile from range which was followed up by goals from Joshua Edwards, Hugo Barbour, George Oliver, and a double from Mitchell Keightley which gave us a commanding 6-2 half time lead. Through a strong second half defensive performance led by the Egyptian Prince goalie, Sherif Hosni, we managed this lead through the remainder of the game to take the win 9-7. Both Hugo Barbour and Sam Keightley adding to their first half goals and Hunter Read rounding out the scoring for the game.

In a rematch of our crossover pool game, we lined up against Rangitoto College in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Final for the second year in a row. Unfortunately, this year was not our year with Rangitoto taking the win, 5-3. Goals from Mitchell Keightley, Hugo Barbour and Hunter Read were not enough to take the win over a strong Rangitoto outfit. This is only the third time that we have medalled at a National Championships following on from our silver medal in 2019 and gold medal in 2021.

The final standings were as follows: Rangitoto College (🥇), Hamilton Boys' High School (🥈) and Tauranga Boys' College (🥉).

While we didn’t achieve the back-to-back wins at the National Championships we set out to at the beginning of the season, we are immensely proud of the growth, performance and sportsmanship of our Premier Team. In the past four years of official, senior competitions, HBHS has made the top four in every tournament and played in the last five major finals in a row. During this time, we have boasted the highest average finishing position, as well as the best goal difference and have developed into one of the top Water Polo schools in the country.

The team would like to thank Head Coach, Rahiti Teokotai-White and Assistant Coach Roana Paterson for their hours of dedicated coaching, Kim Lander for her superb administration skills and Team Manager, Matthew Keightley, for taking such good care of the team.

Photography by Julie Ingram.