Sport & Cultural Prizegiving

Save the date: Thursday 24 October, 7.00pm - 8.30pm in the School Hall (arrive 6.30pm)

Winter Tournament

This year, 15 teams participated in the Winter Sports Tournament, with games held both in Christchurch and at various locations across the South Island, from Invercargill to Blenheim, with one team travelling to the National Premier Tournament in Auckland. These events involve approximately 192 students and are supported by 47 adults. A massive thank you goes out to everyone that has helped organise or support the various fundraising events for our teams. Without this support many of these trips would simply not be possible.

Athletics

Congratulations to Harry Witt who competed in the New Zealand Secondary School Cross Country team in Melbourne during August. The team secured a Bronze medal for NZ.

Basketball

We had 17 basketball teams this year (14 boys and 3 girls). This was similar to last year and is still our most played sport within the school.  We have also been developing our referees and now have eight students that referee either Tuesday, Friday or Saturdays and Brock Harlum was invited to referee for BBNZ at U20 Nationals and will be attending NZ Secondary School Nationals, which is a huge honour.

The Friday night competition was a success, with six teams making finals and the following boys teams winning their grades Senior B, Senior Green, Senior Black, Year 9A and the Girls' Intermediate A team. 

Tuesday night sees us enter the Thomson, Whelan and Grocott Trophy competitions. Our Junior Boys' team (Grocott) developed as the season went on, and used this as their build up for SISS.  The Senior A Girls' (Whelan) finished in the top four and our Senior A Boys' (Thomson) made it to the finals and finished second behind Christ’s College.

For Winter Tournament Week we sent four teams away, Junior A Boys went to Dunedin (Junior SISS) and finished 10th, Senior B Boys headed to Ashburton (Southern Cup) and finished 9th. Both the Senior A Boys and Girls played in Dunedin at the SISS Zone 4 AA Tournament and qualified for Nationals with the girls finishing 6th and the boys finishing 3rd. This is the 6th consecutive year the girls' team have qualified and the 1st time in over 20 years that the boys' team have qualified. Nationals will be held in Palmerston North from 30 September - 5 October.

Equestrian

During August six riders (Susannah Blyth, Peyton Mackintosh, Lily Orange, Jessica Orr, Lily Robotham & Kenzie Burrell) took part in the equestrian One Day Event at McLean's Island. During Winter tournament week we had another six riders (Kiani Cooke, Harriet Jolly, Casey Mackintosh, Kenzie Burrell, Peyton Rose Thompson & Susannah Blyth) compete in the South Island Secondary School Championships (show jumping, dressage, eventing). Harriet Jolly won her class in the Show Hunter & Casey Mackintosh was third. Casey also came fifth overall (for show hunter & show jumping for her height class). Rangiora High School finished fifth team overall (show hunter & show jumping) which was a pretty impressive result as this event is extremely well attended by South Island schools.

Football Boys

The Boys' Football Team qualified for the National Premier tournament in Auckland for the first time in 10 years. After very close losses to St Kentigern's College, St Paul's and Wellington College in Pool play the team played off for 17-32 positions. A 1-1 draw with New Plymouth Boys' High (lost on penalties) was followed by a convincing loss to Hutt International as squad numbers and tired legs began to be a problem. However the boys really turned it around on the last 2 days to finish with great wins over Scot's College (3-2) and Lindisfarne 4-4 (won on penalties). A final placing of 29 does not reflect how good the team was and but for a few more things going our way we could have finished a lot higher.

Gymnastics

Emilia Stanger competed at the Secondary School Artistic Gymnastics competition held at Affinity Gymnastics Centre in Christchurch during term 3. Her performance was outstanding:

1st Vault

1st U-Bars

1st Beam

1st Floor

STEP 5 All Around - 1st

Hockey

Winter tournament week brought on the next challenge for our boys’ and girls' 1st XI hockey teams. With both boys' and girls' teams taking the step up to tier 3 they knew, they were excited to reach another level.

The girls made the big trip down State Highway 1 to Invercargill to compete in the Audrey Timlin Memorial Trophy. The girls had a great week away, finishing second in their pool, winning their quarter-final 3-2 vs Tauranga Girls' and going on to play Burnside High School in the semi-finals. With the scores tied 1-1 at the end of regulation, the match went into a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner. Rangiora and Burnside goalkeepers made several saves forcing the match into sudden death elimination. After scoring on our first attempt we could not keep Burnside out, falling to the 3rd and 4th playoff against Craighead Diocesan, eventually finishing fourth place.

Our boys' 1st XI was slightly further north competing at Coaches Cup in Oamaru. After another strong season, the boys were eager to battle it out against some new opposition and see what they could do. Pool play saw a mixture of results finishing in the 5th-8th bracket. After a few games, the team began to gel, making a significant step up in their teamwork and overall game awareness. The boys put in a strong performance holding out Otago Boys' 2nd XI to win 2-1 and progress to the 5th and 6th playoffs. In the last game of the week the team unfortunately ran out of steam going down 3-0 to Logan Park High School. Overall the team had a great week away and are motivated to set new standards with the majority of students returning next year.

Netball 

We had 14 teams this year, 2 up from last year. With 12 teams playing on Saturday in the North Canterbury Competition, our Senior A girls are in NC Premier grade which is played on a Thursday night. 

With Rangiora High School’s netball season finished it was good to see teams enjoy playing and developing their skills and building strong connections within their team during the season. Leading the way from the top were our Senior A and Senior B teams both playing in two weekly competitions. Senior A, coached by Bella James and Ruby Burney, enjoyed the competitive nature of the Canterbury Secondary Schools' premier SuperNet competition and finished an impressive 3rd. Senior B, coached by Jayne Dewe, flourished in the Christchurch interschool Wednesday competition, winning the Secondary School A Grade Division 2. We also had 2 junior teams compete in the Wednesday Competition, finishing a respectable 6th (Year 10A) and 3rd (Year 9A). These are amazing results and area credit to the coaches, managers for putting in the mahi.

In the NC Saturday competition, we had a good season with seven teams making semi finals. This resulted in two teams winning their finals Year 9A, Year 9B and Year 9D came second. A huge thank you goes out to our 13 students (plus one ex-student) who umpire for us on Wednesdays and Saturdays, without them we wouldn’t be able to compete in these competitions.

The Junior SISS Tournament was held over the last school holidays from 8 - 11 August. This is always a great experience for both teams, with our Year 10A team finished 23rd and the Year 9A team finished seventh.

The Senior Tournament team had only 6 weeks of build up before they competed in the SISS at Nga Puna Wai during winter tournament week. Their mahi paid off as they played really strong and managed to finish 16th out of 32 teams.

Rifle Shooting

The 2024 TSNZ Inter-Secondary Schools Smallbore Target Shooting team, featuring Georgyna Orchard, Monique McKenzie-Browne, and Kimberlea Orchard, finished in 16th place at the Blenheim competition last weekend. Georgyna made an impressive advancement to the South Island team for the South versus North match and then went on to join the New Zealand team.

Monique and Kimberlea also competed in the derby teams, with Monique showing exceptional skill given her short time in the sport. It was amazing to witness the high level of shooting and the great turnout of teams over the weekend.

Huge congratulations to Georgyna for making the New Zealand team!  A heartfelt thank you to coaches Ross and Robert from the Rangiora Smallbore Rifle Shooting Club for their exceptional time and dedication to our students. Also, a big shoutout to Teacher in Charge Steph McConchie for all her support. We truly appreciate all your hard work!

Rugby 

Rangiora High School had a very successful season this year. The school took rugby under its wing again at the end of 2024 and dissolved the rugby committee. Two parents and former committee members, Gary Wake and Christine Johnson joined school staff to form a rugby management team to oversee the transition and we are very grateful for their contribution. We raised over $20 000 in sponsorship and fundraising and the two 1st XV teams raised an additional $10 000 in individual sponsorship which is a testament to the wonderful community support we enjoyed. We fielded eight teams in total and a combined team with Woodend Rugby Club made up a ninth team: working more with local clubs for the betterment of the sport has been an important objective for this year. 

Two of our teams competed in the winter secondary schools' tournament week. Our Boys U15 playing in the prestigious South Island U15 rugby tournament and our girls in the Buller 10s Tournament, both firsts for our school.  Our Boys' 1st XV team progressed undefeated to the finals of the Miles Toyota Championship competition, to draw their last game and be promoted to the Miles Toyota Premiership competition in 2025. Our Senior Boys' U75kg, as well as our Junior Boys' Green team won their respective competitions and our girls rugby registration numbers almost doubled from last year. We did lose a few players due to the delayed start of the Girls' 1st XV competition, something we hope will change next year to allow for a more substantial season for our girls. We also reintroduced the Brockband Graves competition this year: a midweek competition between schools from Christchurch as well as the West Coast, which gave students the opportunity to play other sports over weekends and rugby for their school on a Wednesday. The Girls' 1st XV also hosted a junior girls' game between a North Canterbury U13 Girls' team and a Buller U13 Girls' team early in the season. They ran the warm up drills and supported the younger players throughout their game - a great experience for everyone involved. 

The incredible commitment of our volunteer coaches and managers and the endlessly hard working and inspiring teacher-in-charge of rugby, Emma Don, supported by our Director of Sport, John MacDonald (an enthusiastic rugby coach himself) has been the foundation the success of this season was built on.

Swimming

Macey Barnes, Ryan Beardsmore, Ariana Ferguson, Colbie Gibson, Shae Jackson & Emeric Savy represented Rangiora High School at the Secondary Schools' Swimming Nationals in Auckland during July. While there were no podium finishes— with the best results being 17th and 23rd—several personal bests were achieved. The students enjoyed the opportunity to compete in multiple races, including relays. Well done!