The 2015 Annual AIMS Games kicked off in Tauranga in beautiful conditions on Sunday 6 September with 56 of our Year 7 & 8 athletes taking part.  Congratulations to Grace Fotheringhame on her Gold Medal!

Now in their 12th year, the Games have grown from a small festival of sport to a sporting extravaganza that encompasses 19 sporting codes, with 261 schools represented and over 8000 athletes in attendance. This makes AIMS games one of the largest sports tournaments in the world.

Katikati College is extremely lucky to have this amazing opportunity right on their doorstep and 56 Year 7 & 8 pupils took part in this very tough competition putting their talent up against a huge variety of competition from the some of the biggest Intermediate schools in New Zealand to some of the smallest. Many of the competitors went along to the magnificent opening ceremony.  Along with Guest Speakers, Black Stick Gemma Flynn and Yachtsman, Blair Tuke, they were entertained by acts ranging from Otumoetai Kapahaka to Jamie McDell and Beau Monga along with Urban Dance and The Bradas.

The message of "Play Hard but Play Fair, Win with Humility and Lose with Dignity" was given to all those present. All of our athletes competed fiercely and represented Katikati College with pride and results are as follows:

Gym Sports:

Grace Fotheringhame and Amy Rochat competed in the Twisters Women's Artistic Event on Wednesday and Thursday of AIMS week.  The first day was the teams event and though Katikati College only had two competitors making them ineligible for a team's medal, they had a fine day with each girl having an excellent performance.  Thursday was the individual competition and it proved to be a remarkable day for both young gymnasts with Grace gaining first equal and Amy, while struggling with illness, took 14th place, which out of over 100 gymnasts was an outstanding effort.  Congratulations to Grace on her medal winning performance which put Katikati College on the medal table in 44th place overall.

Cross Country:

Five Year 7's - Jess Harray, Ashlee Tyrrell, Nikolai Frandi, Joshua Noble, Jayden Gordon and four Year 8's - Jordan Nicholson, Sophia Spurr, Katie Rousell and Forest Chinnery, competed in the first event of the games in the 3km Cross Country at Waipuna Park. This was an incredibly competitive event with this fast course being run in around the 10-11 minute mark. The Year 8 girls record was smashed by Briana Irving of Gisborne - quite remarkable to watch.

Football:

A very young team of mainly Year 7's got stuck into the Boys Football and played with passion and commitment. Though they struggled to match their older and bigger opponents, Coach Martyn Niziolek was very proud of the way his team conducted themselves and kept their heads up all week. Although they didn't manage a win, they took their last match against Kerikeri Intermediate to a penalty shootout and fought hard the entire match.

Player of the Tournament was awarded to their captain Nathan Leggatt.

The team was: Nathan Leggatt, Nikolai Frandi, Kaleb Morrissey, Brodie Stacey, Jacob Maloni, Liam Capper, Tommaso Pini, Jonathan Sukkel, Finn Niziolek, Daniel Biggs, Phoenix Chinnery, Reuben Johnson, Tane Mather and Dwayne Van Timmeren.

Hockey 6-a-side:

This year's mixed 6-a-side Hockey team had mixed results. With many schools opting out of 11-a-side to compete in the shortened version, the competition is becoming extremely tough. However Katikati College started well with two wins in their first two pool play matches vs John Paul College & Te Puke Intermediate. They then lost to Taradale before being well beaten by eventual winner Bucklands Beach.

However, the team played out of their skins to keep the scores down and goalkeeper Griffin Fraser was a real crowd-pleaser with his diving saves and aerial leaps. Once into cross-overs playing for 10th-20th, two very narrow but disappointing losses against local rivals Tauranga Intermediate and Aquinas meant they eventually played off for 15th against St Thomas Auckland which they won in style 4-1. Griffin Fraser was nominated for the Tournament team and Dandre' Du Plessis got the Best Team Player Medal.

The team was: Phoebe Soulsby, Ariana Temple, Griffin Fraser, Dandre' Du Plessis, Shelby Catley, Sally Carter, Esme Moore, and Grace Millen.

Indoor Bowls:

Joshua McClean bowled on his own at AIMS in 2014 and was very happy to pick up a partner this year to compete with in the pairs.  He and partner Jack Zhang competed in a massive singles competition of 240 students and the competition was intense. Starting on Tuesday, all competitors had to win 3 out of 4 qualifying matches to get through to the finals on Wednesday. Jack was the first through, winning 3 in a row but Josh fell in his 3rd match and had to win the 4th to go through which he managed in style. The finals day was very difficult and Jack bowed out at Top 90 , but Joshua managed to win right though to Top 8 putting him in the top 3% of bowlers.

Thursday was the Pairs Competition and Josh and Jack bowled superbly, supporting each other and staying calm. They had a local derby match at Top 32 coming up against Matahui Rd School pair Amelie Bourgeois and Rose Raynor. Though the girls played well, the Katikati College Pair won that match. Once again they made Top 8 out of 120 Pairs - congratulations to them both on a superb performance.

Netball:

The very strong 8A Netball team had a fantastic AIMS tournament. Coached by Karen Kiernan they went into the competition confident after a very strong season. Starting with general pool play they won 3 out of their 5 pool matches putting them into the B Grade or middle 32 out of 96 teams.  A win and loss in Wednesday pool play meant a must win against Albany Intermediate on Thursday.   A very tight match ensued where they just went down 24-20 despite an awesome effort from all the girls. This meant they played off in the Division 3 of the B Grade against Selwyn House and Naenae Intermediate on Friday. The energy and commitment was still on show and the tired legs were not obvious as they won both games 23-18 and 25-23. This put them 49th overall - a very good result.

Player of the Tournament Medal was given to Ruby Tawa.

The team was: Sophia Spurr - Captain, Samara Kiernan, Willoh Simpson, Jordan Nicholson, Dana Salmon, Paris Nelson, Aya Metcalfe, Kirsty Brooks, Jess Meade and Ruby Tawa

Rugby:

This year's Rugby Team shaped up to be a very impressive team with the talents of their Tai Mitchell Representative Players on show for the week. Living up to their billing, the team won 6 out of their 8 pool matches - both losses only by a few points. This meant they narrowly missed out on the Cup Championship and went into the Plate Championship. This led to two fantastic days of festival style rugby.

Fast and furious, the team were well structured, tackled well and spun the ball wide for good running rugby. Chris Mascall was everywhere at halfback showing his tackling prowess and Lesen Huiarangi made the hard yards up the middle. Filipe Vakasiuola was a crowd favourite with his size and strength often unstoppable, especially when he got a sniff of the try line. He was also the main conversion taker, rarely missing.  Singled out for selfies by the other teams, this popular player was selected to be in the Tournament Team - an outstanding achievement.

The last day of rugby saw the team beat Otumoetai Intermediate 27-7 before facing Wairoa College from Hawkes Bay in the Plate Final taking it out in exciting style 27-14. Lesen Huiarangi was named Player of the Tournament.

The team was: Lesen Huiarangi - Captain, Tesimoni Uilou, Chris Mascall, Desman Reuben, Tomasi Vakasiuola, Filipe Vakasiuola - Tournament team, Sositeni Tautuaa, Kaha Bluegum, Quinton Landman, Jared Snowball-Boyes, Ethan Campbell.

Squash:

Sole squash representative Katie Templeton went into AIMS ranked 7th after an amazing year of Squash where she made the BOP Girls Development Squad and finished 7th in the North Island U13's. The Squash was of a very high standard and she competed fiercely, winning her first two games before coming unstuck against the No 2 seed. Though her matches were very close she then lost to the 6th and 8th seeds finishing 8th. However, as a Year 7 student, Katie will be in fantastic position to take on AIMS again next year and improve her performance with this year's experience under her belt.

Tennis:

Joshua Noble, Rylee Jeffrey and Dana Salmon competed in the tennis singles on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The AIMS Tennis Competition is a massive event that is generally oversubscribed with only the top seeded players able to compete. It is definitely becoming the premier tournament for this age group in NZ.

Joshua started his tournament positively with a good win. He then went on to win 2 more of his 6 matches finishing in 22nd place overall. He then combined with Jared Snowball-Boyes from the Rugby 7's to play Boys Doubles on Thursday in the knockout competition. Dana Salmon also played 6 matches as well as competing in the Netball Tournament.  She played excellent tennis against some top opponents and only managed 1 win, likewise Rylee who played with determination all week and racked up some good experience and court time.

Katikati College would like to thank all the coaches, managers, parents and supporters who helped get our young athletes to AIMS. We are very proud of their conduct and performance. They are a credit to their families and our community should be very proud of them.

Note from editor:  We also would like to thank our Sports Co-ordinator, Juliet Dunlop-Fraser who has done an outstanding job coordinating this event.  We hear that she was  not only our Sports Co-ordinator for the week but also Team Manager, Coach, Umpire, Medic, Photographer, Head Cheerleader and Taxi Driver! - Well done Juliet!