We have had a lot of sports successes this year featured throughout the magazine.

We had 6 teams competing in the  Otago Futsal Tournament held at the Edgar Centre earlier in the year. Our teams performed well with a number of good placings.

Our Student Sports Council organised a very popular Dodgeball Competition with hundreds of students competing in their Houses for the much coveted House Shield, which was won by Omimi House.

Long distance runners trained with the Harriers Club for our School Cross Country Competition, which was held on 21 May and  the Otago Cross Country in early June.

In Bowls, Jonty Horwell won the Kittyhawk Under 20 Singles for Zone 6 (Timaru south) and competed at the Nationals in Auckland in April against the top 32 young men in the country.

Senior students trained and competed in the Otago Duathlon at the end of May in Taieri.

A number of keen Netball players trialled for the Otago U15 team at the end of May.

A highlight of June was  when one of our top gymnasts, Shannon Thorsnes, (17 ) who is in the New Zealand Gymnastics team and competed in the Australian National Championships in Melbourne, competing in the Ribbon, Ropes, Clubs and Ball. The New Zealand Team won a Bronze medal overall and Shannon won a Silver medal as an individual in the Clubs section.

Students enjoyed competing in the Co-Ed Schools’ Winter Sports Tournament in rugby, hockey, basketball, football, badminton and indoor bowls. We were third overall.

Our School Cross Country Champs  show-cased our  school winners Maddy Bowen, Tyler Stenton- Martin, Henry Gaudin and Molly Morley.

In the local Badminton competition, our boys’ first team was the top co-ed school team and led the competition with wins against Kings and John McGlashan.   Punn Ruayruen was selected for the Otago team.

Claudia Dakin and Maddie Bowen trialled for the Otago U17 Girls football team.  

George Vella King, Alexander Woolrych and Frances Barnett played in the Premier Reserve Adult Hockey competitions and enjoyed the challenge. And our Otago U16 hockey reps Natasha Abbot and Izzy Locker did well.

We took along sporting reps and Sports Council members to hear Gordon Tiitchens speak. The students were motivated and inspired by his excellent speech.

The school Ice Hockey team  competed well, playing on Wednesday evenings.

Our Senior A netball team competed in the Otago Secondary School Netball Championships and enjoyed the several days of competition.

In Rugby, our girls and boys teams enjoyed strong seasons.

In Basketball, Jaren Roy was selected for the New Zealand Under 17 team training camp in Timaru in August.

And George McLaurin was selected for the Dunedin Under 17 cricket training squad.

In Hockey, Jacob Duffy and Ben Major were selected for the U15 Otago development team. Our U15’s  played in the Senior Men’s Club Hockey competition each week in preparation for a regional tournament. Four students, Alexander Woolrych, George Vella-King, Natasha Abbott and Izzie Locker, who play in the Club hockey competition were in teams that made the Club finals.

A number of students were involved withTournament teams including the Hockey tournament in Blenheim, Basketball tournament in Dunedin and Bowls tournament in Wellington in Term 3.

Two junior teams trained for the Get2Go Challenge in kayaking, mountain-biking and running. 

Our Snowboarding camp to Ohau  was action-packed and exciting with students appreciating the extended time to hone their skills.

Sports Prefects and Student Sports Council members, George Vella-King, Chris Gillett, Maddy Bowen and Frances Barnett attended the Sports Prefects Workshop, run by the Otago Secondary School Sports Association. They found it practical and affirming of their current leadership and initiatives in our school sports.

Our Climbing Club, led by Adian Braid continued to make great use of the climbing wall and the lunchtime table-tennis was popular with all levels.

At the national Indoor Bowls Tournament in Wellington, Jonty Horwell won the New Zealand Junior Singles title.

Tournament Week went well for all our teams.

In the Basketball Tournament in Dunedin, a highlight was Jaren Roy scoring 43 points in one game against Buller High School.

In Blenheim, our First XI Hockey team played 6 games, with some good wins, losses and draws. For a young team, they impressed with their grit and determination. George Vella-King received the award of “Best Player.”

Ben Major and Jacob Duffy gave strong performances in the Otago Hockey Under 15 Development team. Ben scored 3 goals, and the team won 11-2 against Southland and 2-1 against Central Otago.

Nikolai Menkies won an Outstanding Endeavour Award sailing on the Spirit on New Zealand in August.

Kashi Leuchs, an ex-student was our guest speaker at our Senior Blues Assembly. He talked about his experiences as a national champion and Olympic mountain biker.  

Pippi Miller continued to excel in Fencing, coming third equal in the Women’s Foil at the South Island Championships in Dunedin. She fenced very well against top ranked women in New Zealand.

Vollleyball saw 5 teams competing in the local competition.

Tayla Ward was selected for the New Zealand Junior Women's Luge Team travelling to World Cup Events in Italy, Germany and Austria. She leaves in December.

At the NZ National Rhythmic Gymnastic Championships, Stephanie Devereux was first in Clubs Level 7 and third in the Hoop.

And at the National Champs for Taekwondo, in September, Lily Menzies won a Gold medal in the Pairs and a Silver medal in the Team event.

In the South Island Diving Championships, Ben Deaker was placed first in the 1 and 3 metre Springboard. He was placed 3rd overall and is competing in the NZ Dive Championships next year.

In Football, during the September holidays, Joseph Araya competed with the 13th Grade Otago team at the Queenstown tournament. And Solomon Liesbeth played for the 15th Grade Otago team in Timaru. Otago came third overall.

Ex-student, Rafaela Rubas, was awarded a Scholarship to the University of North Carolina in USA in field hockey beginning in 2015.

Our Annual Interhouse Indoor Rowing Competition was won by Aoraki House and we had hundreds of students involved.

A large number of junior students competed in the Otago Junior Sports Tournament in Dodgeball, Handball, Cricket, Touch and Waterpolo in Term 4. We won the Dodgeball and came third in Waterpolo and Handball.

Tash Gosling, Year 12, qualified for the New Zealand Secondary School Athletics Championships in Shot Put in December.

Hamish McKinley, Bradley Yates and Jonty Horwell were all selected for the National Secondary Schools Bowls Tournament in Auckland in December.

We are very happy with our sports participation rate for 2014. It is 62% which is up from last year, and above the national average of 52%. Basketball remains our most popular sport with Hockey, Football and Futsal close behind.

At the various Senior Prizegivings and Blues Awards  we celebrated outstanding successes and New Zealand titles in Basketball, Fencing, Gymnastics, Bowls, Taekwando, and Luge as well as South Island and regional representative status.

Shannon Thorsnes won the Premier Blue in Sport for her outstanding performance in Australasian gymnastics competitions.

In Senior Prizegiving, Runa Falanitule won Service to Sport Girls and Tyler Stenton- Martin won Service to Sport Boys.

Our Junior Prizegiving saw many students winning awards and Solomon Liesbeth, Lily Menzies, Ben Major, Aria Nader-Turner, Molly Morley, and Jacob Duffy  stood out winning multiple awards across diverse areas including Athletics , Cross Country, Football, Futsal, Volleyball, Basketball and Hockey.

Jacob Duffy attended an elite U18 Hockey Academy with coaching great, Dave Ross.

Our Junior Sports Council has reviewed and planned for next year, with a handball competition already scheduled and coaching courses with Sport Otago.

We're looking forward to another strong Sporting year in 2015.