The arrival of a new season always brings a sense of anticipation and excitement, and the world of sports is no exception. Once again, the familiar time of year has arrived, when we lace up our boots, chauffeur our children from one game to another, and embrace the fresh chill of the North Canterbury morning air. Beyond the competitive arena, sports hold a special place in our lives, transcending boundaries and uniting communities. They inspire us to push ourselves, to work together towards a common goal, and to believe in the power of human potential. From the cheers of enthusiastic fans filling the side lines to the shared celebrations of victories, sports bring people together and create lasting memories. Our aim is to cultivate these cherished memories within our young people, nurturing their growth and development into better individuals. It takes a united community effort to accomplish this task, as we collectively work together to provide an environment where these memories can be nurtured and our young people can flourish.

Sport & Cultural Prize Giving

Save the date - Thursday 26 October (7.00pm - 8.30pm) in the School Hall.

Sport Team Photos

Save the date - Monday 7 August in the School Hall (all sports teams).

Basketball

Congratulations to Senior A player Ashlyn Rean on making the tournament team at the Under 19 Nationals (AON U19) in early June! Ashlyn was also the top scorer of the tournament averaging just under 24 points per game, well done Ashlyn, awesome effort.

Senior A Girls & Boys were presented with blazers in mid May.

Cross Country

The Canterbury Secondary School cross country event was once again held at Ascot Park, New Brighton at the end of May with around 200 students competing from across Canterbury.

Alex Ellerm fought a hard race, finishing near the middle of the pack in the Senior Boys divisions. Harry Witt, also competing in the Senior Boys' finished a very credible 6th place.

Cycling - MTB

Three students encountered extreme snowy conditions competing at the South Island Secondary School MTB championships at Coronet Peak during the Term 1 school holiday. No podium finishes this year but I’m sure they all gained valuable experience riding in such tough conditions.

Equestrian

Our team of 4 riders (Taylah Dolan, Kimberley Lyttle, Holly Hansen & Harriet Jolly) had a wonderful day competing at the Canterbury Secondary School Dressage competition during April with the team finishing in 8th place. A special shout out to our wonderful equestrian whanau for the early starts required to get our riders to this event.

Football Blazer Ceremony

One of the highlights of the football season is the joint blazer presentation for the Boys & Girls 1st XI Football teams. This is followed by a quick lesson from Mr Kearney on how to correctly tie a tie before the semi-formal photos are taken. This year we were especially lucky to have Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey help out.

Hockey

The Girls' 1st XI have chosen to play in the Canterbury Hockey Wednesday night competition this year and are currently sitting in 4th place (of 8 schools) in the Div 3 competition.

The Boys' 1st XI have remained in the School Sport Canterbury Monday night competition and are currently leading the competition by 1 point after a close game ended in a win this week.

The 6-aside Hockey team is a new team for us this year and includes three of our international students. The team is currently sitting in 1st place.

Netball

Our twelve teams have had a great start to the season. They play in the North Canterbury Saturday competition, Wednesday Canterbury Schools Sport, Supernet and Premier North Canterbury.

We have had a mixture of some great wins, and hard losses. But as always sport is the winner on the day. The girls have enjoyed being part of a team, getting fitness and increasing their netball skills.

A big thank you to the coaches, managers and parents for giving your time up every week to coach, guide and take our girls to netball. This sport could not survive without you.

Congratulations to the following RaHS netball players who have been named in the North Canterbury 2023 Under 16 Representative teams.

Gold Selection

Anahera Jones, Grace Tull, Hannah Lawler, Harper McDonald, Macey Barnes, McKenzie Houkamau, Phoebe Keating and Turtle Teddy-Ward

Blue Selection

Alice Fungavaka, Allie Jagger, Jae-Lee Stapp and Madison Moir

Rugby

The rugby season at Rangiora High School is well underway, with 6 teams from U14.5 grade through to our Girls' and Boys' 1st XV teams getting into their work as we head into the middle parts of round robin play.

Teams have been travelling from as far north as Nelson and as far south as Timaru to play on Saturdays. We had a successful Club Day held on Saturday 17 June. It was fantastic to see all teams playing at home.

U14.5 teams, Green and Gold, have been playing some excellent running rugby with a relatively high win rate across their competition. MC Alps and Plains came to challenge us on Club Day which made for some highly competitive games played on the day. It was great to see some of our own Rangiora High School students officiating at these games.

U16s are building into their work and at the time of writing have won one game, narrowly going down to a number of other teams.

The 2nd XV play in the U18s grade and have a mixed number of game results, highlights have been their one point win over Oxford and at Club Day a last minute, second half push to beat Waihora 11 - 5. Once again the game was well officiated by one of our senior students.

The Girls' 1st XV have been travelling into Burnside Park on Wednesdays for their round robin competition, they have won some of their games, notably against Kaiapoi and Rangi Ruru combined. They sit third in the standings for their competition.

The 1st XV are currently second equal on points in the standings for the Miles Toyota Championship. Our next four fixtures are away with games at our local clubs, including Ohoka, Ashley and trips to Roncalli in Timaru and Ashburton to play Mid-Canterbury Combined.

Congratulations to Liam Murphy and Kah’nal Ngawati who have made the Crusader/Canterbury Development Group. This is an outstanding achievement for these players and very well deserved.

Thank you to all of those volunteers involved in running rugby at our school and for your input each week to grow and foster teenage rugby at Rangiora High School. 

Sports Exchange

Rangiora High School was invited to take part in the inaugural Pre-season Rolleston Sports Exchange in early April including Lincoln High School, Hillmorton, Rolleston & Cashmere. As not all our winter teams had finished selecting players we limited our attending teams to only include Football (Boys & Girls) and Netball Senior A, but we hope to open this up to more teams in future years.

Unfortunately the ongoing PPTA industrial action has resulted in the tough decision to cancel the annual sports exchange with Ashburton College due to take place on Thursday 29 June, along with the Nelson Hockey exchange also due to take place this term. We know many of our students look forward to these exchanges and we share their disappointment. We will be looking into the possibility of holding a sports exchange with Kaiapoi High School some time during Term 3.

Swimming

13 students took part in the Canterbury Secondary School Swimming Championships at Jellie Park Pool complex during the end of Term 1. 

A superb effort from everyone involved and especially students who finished on the podium:

Ryan Beardsmore - 50m Freestyle 15yr - 1st

Claudine Bennett - 50m Freestyle 12-13yr - 2nd

Macey Barnes - 100m Freestyle 14yr - 2nd

Colbie Gibson - 50m Breaststroke 14yr - 3rd

In May RHS students Macey Barnes, Ryan Beardsmore, Ariana Ferguson, Colbie Gibson, Shae Jackson and Emeric Savry were in Wellington competing at the Swimming New Zealand Division II National Competition representing the North Canterbury Swimming Club.

These swimmers train hard year round, and spent the twelve months prior competing to achieve qualification times for each event. With a gruelling schedule over five days, the team achieved some Awesome Placings, Outstanding PBs and Podium Finishes. They came 8th out of 71 clubs in the Competition! They also got to rub shoulders with Olympian and Commonwealth swimmer Lewis Clareburt.

Ribbons awarded:

Macey Barnes

• 4 x 50M Medley Relay - 3rd place (Butterfly)

Ryan Beardsmore - 4 x 50M Freestyle Relay - 1st place

• 4 x 50M Medley Relay - 2nd place (Butterfly)
• 4 x 100M Freestyle Relay - 1st place

Colbie Gibson

• 50M Breaststroke - 2nd place
• 4 x 50M Medley Relay - 3rd place (Breaststroke)

Shae Jackson

• 800M Freestyle - 3rd place - 1500M Freestyle - 1st place
• 4 x 50M Medley Relay, 3rd place (Freestyle)

Winter Tournament

It’s a busy but exciting time with preparations underway to send 12 teams (164 students) off to Winter Tournaments during the last week of August.

Teams & venues are:

• Basketball Senior Boys - Dunedin

• Basketball Senior Girls - Dunedin

• Basketball Junior Boys - Dunedin

• Basketball Junior Girls - Dunedin

• Equestrian - Christchurch

• Football Boys 1st XI - Nelson

• Football Girls 1st XI - Blenheim

• Hockey Boys 1st XI - Greymouth

• Hockey Girls 1st XI - Greymouth

• Netball Senior A - Invercargill

• Rugby U15 Junior Boys - Alexandra

• Ice Hockey (1 student playing in a combined Burnside High School team)

• Basketball Boys Senior B - Timaru

Xanthe Jane

We are proud to announce that Xanthe Jane has been selected for the 2023 Sports Visitor Program which will take place in New Jersey, United States during July. This is a once in a life-time opportunity for five female youth athletes fully funded by the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Embassy New Zealand. This program, with a theme of empowering young women and future leaders, will celebrate the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Participants will explore leadership and the history of female sports in the United States and the program will include a football camp, workshops and meetings, as well as various cultural and sporting events. It will also build upon the successful Women in Sports campaign.

Congratulations Xanthe!

Waterskiing

Zak Bainbridge, a Year 10 student, is now a New Zealand record holder!

In mid-April at the Central Waterski Regional Championships held at Lake Wiritoa, Whanganui, Zak skied 3 buoys on the 11 metre line at 55kph to set a New Zealand U14 Boys slalom record.

A member of the Radar ski team, Zak at only 14 years old is now 16th equal on New Zealand Open Men's Slalom ranking list and he finished the season 2nd in the world for U14 Boys Slalom.