Last weekend the King’s High School Junior A and B Volleyball teams competed in the Otago Championship. Fortunately, the two teams were in separate pools. Our Junior B team, the Bulls, started the tournament off with a close loss to the top Otago Boys' High School (OBHS) Year 10 team, giving their higher ranked opponents a real fright. The rest of Saturday was a tough series of games with older and more experienced players. The Bulls went through to the Sunday with a best possible finish of fifth. They beat Waitaki Boys' High School (WBHS) in the morning to set up a “final” with OBHS Year 9 for the coveted fifth spot. After a titanic battle, the Bulls came out on top and finished a very creditable, for a young team, fifth in the Otago Champs.

The Junior A team, the Eagles, played WBHS, Trinity Catholic College and OBHS Year 9’s on the first day. Going through as top qualifiers without dropping a set. This set up our regular opposition for the semi-final on Sunday morning, OBHS Year 10. The Eagles showed their class by dispatching OBHS in two relatively easy sets. This sent us to the final against a very strong Trinity who had beaten John McGlashan College in a very, very tight semi earlier in the day.

Our Eagles won the first set relatively easily but started too slow in the second, and despite a spirited fight back, went down in the second to take the team to their first third set. After a to and fro set the boys closed out the third to become deserving Otago Junior Volleyball Champions, again.

Every player stood up and we were rewarded with four boys selected in the tournament team: Our Captain Lafa Tofiga, the exceptional Vincent Laban, setter extraordinaire Harlen Whitfield and the explosive outside hitter Tom Strickson.

Special thanks go to our Senior assistant coach, Charlie Jackson and the student assistant coach for the Bulls, Tom Severne. The Bulls were supported by coaches Paul Tupa’i and Jesse Dryden while the Eagles were coached by the best Volleyball coach in the land, Andy Campbell.

Next on the schedule is the Junior South Island Volleyball Championships which are in Dunedin from November 21–23. The boys are well short of where they will need to be for this tournament and are working hard to reach the top again!