Last weekend the Senior A Waterpolo team attended South Island Secondary Schools' Championships in Christchurch.

The first two days consisted of pool games where we experienced some tough and close games and definitely a much higher intensity of waterpolo than what we were used to in the Dunedin competition. We ended up second in our pool which was an amazing achievement.

On Thursday afternoon our team went to visit the flower wall at the botanic gardens, along with the Otago Boys' team. Prefects from Otago Boys', Ella Steel (Deputy Head Girl) and Sophie Wilson (Head Sports Prefect) laid down flowers as a sign of respect towards the lives lost in the shooting. Our team then went to the Mosque and were invited in, shown around and talked to by some of the people within the Muslim community and some who had been present in the Mosque on the day of the shooting. This was a truly confronting, enriching and fortunate experience for all of us to be a part of and we were all extremely grateful.

We played Marlborough Girls' in the quarter-final and ended up losing 11 to 8. We then played Christchurch Girls' in the 5th and 6th and played an amazing last game to come away with an 8 to 5 win. Throughout the tournament, I was absolutely amazed to see the teamwork, positivity, sportsmanship and determination shown by every single player in the team and I can say that it was one of the best team environments I have ever been a part of. A massive thank you to our coach Rhys Heatley for continuing to encourage and inspire us and assistant coach Hayley Smith for providing amazing advice and laughs. Finally to our manager Ms McNatty for being amazingly considerate, helpful and patient with us - we appreciate everything you did so very much.