Once again Omokoroa No.1 has punched above its weight at this year’s AIMS Games. Our school entered 3 teams: Mixed Hockey, Girls Futsal and Boys Futsal. We also had a number of students enter the following individual events: Gymnastics, Swimming, Indoor Bowls, Cross Country, Golf, Mountain Biking.

Across all sports we had a total of 38 students participating. All of these students gave their best in respective sports. We achieved some respectable results and we can be proud of our students’ efforts.

Our senior children are extremely lucky to have had such fantastic parental support leading up to, and during, AIMS Games week (2nd -8th September).

Enduro Mountain Bike event

Bryn George competed in the Year 8 Boys Enduro Mountain Bike event on Friday of AIMS Games. After a wet week helping out around the course, and cheering his mates on in other events, racing day finally came around. After 4 timed downhill stages, Bryn finished in 4th place overall, out of 101 Y8 boys in the event. An awesome achievement after lots of dedication to his training through winter!

Cross Country

Sylvia Mayston, Sienna Scott, Tayler Williams, Lucy McGregor & Ellie-Marie Walls. 

Well done to all our Cross Country competitors. They all show a outstanding amount of determination and resilience in each race they competed in. There was a high level of of competitors from school’s all over New Zealand and our Omokoroa No.1 School students did extremely well against some very large intermediate schools.

After our students ran a hard individual 3km race then they all competed in the school relay. Everyone supported each team member as each student ran another 1km each to complete a 6km relay. Overall we came 10th from 16 teams.

Also, thanks to our awesome parents for all the support. It was a pleasure to spend the day with such wonderful kids!

Swimming

Renee’s swimming results for Aims Year 13 girls are below:

Placing        Event             Time off Personal Best (If applicable)

4th          50m Butterfly          2 sec

7th        100m Backstroke      2.7 sec

9th        200m Backstroke         -

10th      200m Freestyle         5 sec

10th     50m Backstroke       0.46 sec

12th     100m Medley         3.50 sec

12th     50m Freestyle         0.30 sec

12th     100m Freestyle         3.5 sec

17th    50m Breaststroke      1.4 sec

Golf

18 Hole Golf- Archie Kenny, 9 Hole Golf- Fynn Campbell

The 18 hole golf for AIMS games was held over 3 days with three testing courses - Te Puke, Tauranga and Mt Maunganui, all in some testing weather conditions. Archie placed 13th in the boys stableford category after an epic final round at The Mount with a total of 110 points, an average of 37 per day which is a great effort. The winner in this very strong field won the gross category with an average of 71 shots per round off the white tees (-1) for the tournament and there were many players of the same quality present in the 18 hole competition.

Despite the rain, Fynn had an amazing 3 days of golfing. He made new friends and had a lot of fun. He came 8th in the boys 9 hole Stableford.

Although both Fynn and Archie took part in an individual sport, the support from their school mates, parents and wider community was absolutely huge and they very much felt part of the overall AIMS hype.  

Gymnastics

Morgan Laing, Tayler Williams

Indoor Bowls

Charlotte Young, Charlotte Cockerill, Violet Hopkins-Rex

Boys Futsal

Gem Gamble, Seth Rosenberg, Ben Fraser, Cooper Mellor-Shane, Lennox Astill, Issac Little, Issac Dunne, Max Dunne, Kai Base & George Bradford. 

The Omokoroa No.1 AIMS boys futsal team played a total of 9 games across 5 days of AIMS competition. The futsal comp was very keenly contested and the skill level and the intensity levels of most of the teams was very high. The boys equipped themselves well and grew into the competition as the tournament progressed. They had some very good wins (won 5 of 9 games) and against the bigger schools they battled hard and made life difficult for the opposition. The boys all enjoyed their week at AIMS and continued the tradition of No.1 kids punching above their weight.

Girls Futsal 

The Year7/8 Girls AIMS Futsal team came into the tournament in great form with a couple of practise games already under their belt against Tauranga schools. Coach Ben Bell (the face of Omokoroa Football club & Friday night Futsal) had developed this group of hockey & football girls adapting to the faster, tighter form of 5-a-side indoor Football.

When the draw came out it was clear they were in a tough pool with Berkley Normal Middle School up first (eventual 1st placed in the tournament). They held them to a scoreless first quarter with some great work in attack and defense before conceding their first goal, then going on to meet Farm Cove from Pakuranga (2022 2nd placed team). Their next game against Mount Maunganui Int was their best opportunity to secure a place in the top 16 of the next round. With great support from other competitors in the school from the sideline, they kept their goalie very busy but were denied the win in the closing minutes with a shot on goal hitting the post square on, reminiscent of many FIFA World Cup matches recently and ended in a draw.

After 4 games on the first day, then a rest day (well except for 4 of the girls competing in Cross Country on the Sunday) the team faced Tauranga Int who they had met prior to the tournament. TIS had improved in their defensive play and held our girls to 1-1 until the last 30 sec when a ball coming in from their corner kick pin-balled around the goal area before finding its way over the line. It was a tough result but the girls picked themselves up and went on to finish the tournament on a high, picking up 3 wins and 2 draws over the 10 games in 5 days, and only conceded 5 goals in the last 6 games!

Well done girls, they can all be extremely proud of themselves and take away the knowledge that they are competitive against some of the strongest teams in the country. It’s inspiring to see the talent, athleticism across multiple sports to compliment their high achievements academically and also in the arts coming from this group. Along with the team’s development and experience gained, there was also plenty of fun had over the week.

A massive thanks to Ben for his commitment, all the parents, Mr Burton and teachers for support. Also the sponsors for the Hoodies Tru Sportswear (Ben Bell) and shirts, Omokoroa Taxation & Accounting, Precise Builders & BrandAddiction.

Congratulations to all the other school competitors representing Omokoroa No1 school in the other team and individual sports at AIMS during the week.

Murray Burgham

Manager

Mixed Hockey 

Although the rain persisted, so did our athletes. They were well prepared to play in all weather to win their pool - the team goal was to make top 8 in the tournament, and they were competing against 52 mixed teams.

They drew 2:2 against their strongest competition Taupo on Monday afternoon which meant to win their pool it was based on goal differentiation – for their last 2 pool games on Wednesday they needed 15 and 8 goals in each respective game, most importantly they couldn’t let the other team’s score. They went out and ‘emptied the tank’, achieving what they needed - they got the goals and didn’t let a single one slip through. They made the top 8.

Ice baths were necessary for some very tired legs on Wednesday night, Thursday was the quarter & semi finals. Our athletes were tired but determined and Thursday morning they took away another great win, they’d made top 4.

Thursday afternoon, although a game played with the utmost determination and passion – they lost. Once again, they left it all out there on the turfy, but it wasn’t to be and they were now playing for 3rd and 4th place.

Finals day on Friday saw them play against TKKM, a Taupo school – a lot of their players are a lot bigger than ours, and we’d been watching them throughout the week. They had skills.

Our team was fresh and more determined than ever - they were prepared to empty the tank once again, and play to win. It was a tough game, but The Jets had them on the run and the final score 3:2 is a reflection of how hard they played. We may have lost the game but with half of Omokoroa cheering the team on from the sideline, it still felt like a win. Coming 4th overall is no easy feat and The Jets should be incredibly proud – everyone that watched them play could not dispute their passion for the game, they are all champions.

Massive shout out to everyone that made the week possible – the generous support of our sponsors Bureta Physio, Te Puna 4 Square and Bruntwood farms. To all the amazing parent support transporting and keeping an eye on these kids throughout the day. A heartfelt thank you to our amazing coach Bridget Ensor who never doubted the potential of this team and led them through to an outstanding result – all with fun and laughter along the way.

Kate

Manager