Wearing a white shirt and a blazer covered in badges displaying his many achievements, Cayden sat at the front of the room with an air of confidence. Recently named Head Boy of Hamilton Boys’ High, Cayden is prepared to lead the school throughout 2022. However, becoming Head Boy was not an easy achievement.

Born in South Africa, specifically Centurion, a town outside Johannesburg, Cayden moved to New Zealand when he was just five months old. Although he moved at such a young age, Cayden grew up predominantly speaking Afrikaans with his family, whilst simultaneously learning how to fit into Kiwi culture. During his primary school years, Cayden developed a passion for football as his neighbour who also had a love for the game inspired him. “He was like a mentor to me at that stage, he was probably about 7 years older than me but I remember looking up to him.” Cayden attended Goodwood Primary School from Years 1 to 6 and then Cambridge Middle School for two years, achieving highly in his sporting endeavours.

Cayden’s decision to attend HBHS (despite many of his peers going to Cambridge High), was influenced by wanting to go to a school where the sporting and academic traditions were strong. Cayden came to HBHS worried that he wouldn’t fit in, as just four boys from his intermediate school had chosen HBHS as well. Very quickly, Cayden’s worries were proven wrong as he fit in easily with some fellow football players. Being a part of the sporting culture undoubtedly helped develop Cayden’s leadership goals. “In Year 9, I thought I would love to be Head Boy but I was not sure if I would be able to.” Throughout Cayden’s years at HBHS, he has been consistently one of the top academics, being in some of the top classes for his core subjects in Years 9 and 10, and then completing IGCSE in Year 11.

However, in May of last year, while Cayden was playing football, he jumped up for a header and collided heads with another player. Cayden continued to play, “Looking back on it now, I probably regret that; I had two other knocks on the head that game.” Cayden came off at halftime and his vision was blank, he just ignored it and considered it normal after having taken a few knocks to the head. Over the next few weeks, the headaches and loss of vision continued to plague Cayden. CT scans of his head proved no structural damage was found. Despite this, Cayden was experiencing symptoms of a major head injury. These symptoms continued for months, and Cayden even struggled to hold a conversation with people. He felt dizzy and his vision cut out often. “I had been doing really well in my football, and now I was missing out on training camps and the opportunity for being chosen for squads, so that was a big upset for me.” Not only was Cayden’s football affected, but also his academic studies - he had missed his practice exams due to his inability to go to school, which endangered his goal to achieve Level 2 with Excellence. Cayden worked every day as much as he was capable of and ended up sitting a total of eight papers, giving him a total of 47 credits for the year, achieving the 46 credit cut off for Excellence.

After such a big setback, Cayden’s year is off to a good start, being named Head Boy for 2022. Cayden’s foremost focus for the year as Head Boy is to try and get back to normality after the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are looking to incorporate as many things as possible because COVID has taken away a lot of what makes HBHS so special. A challenge is making sure all the boys feel like a part of the school.” After overcoming such a detrimental injury and persevering through extremely tough times, as Head Boy, Cayden is sure to be an inspiration for all students.