How Mixx and NZ U21 players James Harrison and Jordy Keating have taken their school from nowhere to top ranked in New Zealand korfball

When James Harrison stands tall for the national anthem at the IKF U21 Asia Oceania Korfball Championship in Leshan, China in the coming days, wearing the silver fern may be his greatest sporting achievement, though only just. James has another accomplishment that is almost as remarkable: along with his colleague in the New Zealand U21 team Jordy Keating, James is responsible for starting korfball at their high school, which is now the top korfball school in the country.

When they started in year nine at Kaiapoi High School in 2021, James and Jordy were already keen korfballers, from when they were in year six at Pegasus Bay Primary School.

“Torsten rocked up to school in his little red car full of posts and balls. He quickly switched our class on to korfball, then came back in to take regular training. We were all in from there,” says James.

In 2020 Pegasus Bay went to an early edition of what is now the Mixx primary schools cup, where James caught the eye, gaining selection in the tournament team.

A few months later, the pair of them and their Pegasus Bay mates made their way to Kaiapoi High School. Welcoming them on the first day the principal made a speech with the theme ‘if there’s anything you love doing and think others at school would like too, talk to your teachers - they have my support to make it happen.’

“I thought: ‘I love korfball, I wonder if they can make that happen,’” says James, who knew about the regular Canterbury high school competition, though also knew that up to that point korfball had only featured in physical education at Kaiapoi, not as a school sport.

Making it their mission, the former Pegasus Bay youngsters recruited a few of their new schoolmates, including Cody Siegenthaler, also now in the New Zealand U21 squad. They quickly had enough to put a Kaiapoi team into the weekly competition’s junior section.

With the help and support of school sports coordinator Hayley Newton, talk at the school quickly turned from ‘What’s this strange new sport?’ to ‘How do I sign up to play?’

With approximately 80 students now playing for the school on Friday evenings, the enthusiasm of James, Jordy and their teammates has turned Kaiapoi into one of the top korfball schools by playing numbers, and for the last two years, the champion school team, winners of the Mixx South Island Secondary Schools Seniors for 2024, backing up in 2025 with great domination, as well as taking out the 2025 Term One Mixx Secondary Schools League. Kaiapoi also contributed five players to the highly successful Mixx NZ U19 squad that went to Taiwan in March: James, Cody, Eva Parry, Izzy Clark and James’ brother Will.

While Cody left school in 2024 and James and Jordy are now in their final year, their legacy is set to continue for a few more years yet. All three Kaiapoi players in the U21 team has a younger sibling who has also progressing well in korfball, as do several of their Kaiapoi teammates, so a tradition is being created at the school.

Not content with their impact on the New Zealand team at the upcoming IKF U21 AOKC, Kaiapoi High School has also contributed two players to Japan. Yume Nakagawa and Yuma Nasu are both international exchange students at Kaiapoi who found their passion for korfball at the school as part of the wave of enthusiasm generated by James and Jordy. Yume and Yuna went back to Japan in the summer holidays, attended the Japanese Korfball Association’s trial, and made the Japan U21 team, which is set to play New Zealand in their final pool game in Leshan on Sunday 3 August.

New Zealand’s pool games are:

7.15pm (NZT) Thursday 31 July v Hong Kong

9.45pm Friday 1 August v Malaysia

9.45pm Saturday 2 August v Thailand

7.15pm Sunday 3 August v Japan.

Livestream for the games is here.