With the end of the year fast approaching the sports department has been busy preparing for the 2024 season. New initiatives such as the sports website, refreshed sports uniform, and sports management teams are almost up and running and we are excited for the improved efficiency and professionalism that these initiatives will provide.

In week 3 we had our annual colours evening which was an excellent celebration of our students' success. As a department we feel that each year the quality of the event improves, and we have seen a resurgence in attendance of parents and whānau.

The 2023 census returned pleasing results with growth across a variety of areas. The key moving forward is for us to ensure manageable growth as a rising level of participants requires an increase in coaches, managers and parent drivers.

Finally, at the end of this year Guy Strawbridge and Liam Connelly will be stepping down as Co-Directors of Sport. In 2024 Guy aims to focus on his new role as Assistant Leader of Learning in the Health & PE faculty. While Liam is going to focus on his basketball coaching both within Rangiora High School, and with his roles as Head Coach of the New Zealand Under 15’s and Assistant Coach for the Canterbury Rams. John MacDonald has been appointed as the new Director of Sport; John brings a wealth of experience with him teaching at Marlborough Boys & Darfield High before moving to RHS this year. John has experience with a wide variety of sports and has taken on volleyball and rugby coaching at RHS this year.

Website

The new Sport website will go live near the beginning of Term 1. Through the website we will be able to provide faster, clearer communication across all sports. Including the ability for students & whanau to easily access information of the sports we offer and our policies (Code of conduct, Colours awards, uniform, sport results etc)

Athletics

We have four students (Harry Witt, Cody Broderson, Brooke Fortune & NaDaniel Fungavaka) competing at the National Secondary School Athletics Championships being held at the Nga Puna Wai Sports Hub during 8-10 December. We wish them all the best for the competition.

Crusaders On-site training

Friday 8 December

Rangiora High School playing field.

9:30am-10:45am Training session

10:30am-11:15am Community engagement

Skills, meet & greet, and autograph signing.

Horse Polo

Our horse polo team of Annika Ettema, Jessica Orr, Emma Stephenson and Libby Thompson finished runners up at the SUPA tournament on 26th November. Their first time competing in the higher B Grade competition.

Well done team!

Korfball

In Term 4 we had 2 Junior teams compete at SISS Junior tournament held in Rangiora, this was a great experience for them and followed on from our 2 Senior teams who competed at SISS in term 3. We had 1 senior and 1 junior team compete in the Friday night weekly Canterbury Schools competition run by Mixx Korfball Canterbury. There has been a big push for Korfball in Canterbury Primary schools, and we are just starting to see the increase in interest. We are trying to have in place a good structure for our 2024.

We have been fortunate to retain NZ U21 Korfball Coach Jakob Eder (who was also our Junior A Boys Basketball Coach), to help with our development and he runs training once a week. He is keen to help us develop our programme in 2024.

MainPower sports Trust - Youth Scholarships

Three current students & one ex Rangiora High School student received a $2000 Youth Sport Scholarships from MainPower Sports Trust during October.

Xanthe Jane - Football

Georgyna Orchard - Rifle Shooting

Ashlyn Rean - Basketball

Jacob Turner - Mountain biking

You can read about our recipients here: MainPower Sports Trust - Scholarship recipients

MTB Secondary School Nationals

Six students (Cameron Butler, Taylor Cox, Gus McConnon, Mace Reed, Mitch Turner & Julian Sutherland) competed in the Skoda National School Mountain Bike Championships in Blenheim during October. The riders competed strongly.

MTB Downhill Series

Over the course of the past 6 weeks, a total of 15 junior students have taken part in the Canterbury Adventure Park Secondary School Downhill mountain bike weekly competition. Two riders finished in the top 10 (out of 100 Secondary School competitors). Thank you to all the parents that have helped make this event possible for our students.

Skateboarding

For the first time in School Sport Canterbury history, an event to recognise the talented rangatahi who are eager skateboarders and provide them with a platform to showcase their skills and represent their school.

Our student Phoebe Chatterton was the Open Girls' grade winner at the recent Cheapskates Skate Skool Canterbury Secondary Schools Skate Championship. You can read all about Phoebe in the School Sport Canterbury article.

School Sport Canterbury article on with Phoebe Chatterton

Touch

The number of students playing touch have doubled in 2023 due to entering the local Southbrook Touch competition for our junior teams, instead of the Canterbury schools' weekly competition. The travel into Christchurch most weeks limited the number of students who were able to play. A few of our students already played at Southbrook socially but now have the chance to play for school.

Guy Strawbridge runs a weekly training session, and we have a parent manage the teams on game day.

We still have a Senior Touch team playing in the Canterbury Schools' Wednesday competition, they are currently in preparation for Nationals in Rotorua from 7-10 December.

Volleyball

Volleyball runs over Term 4 / Term 1, with the main focus in term 4 being our junior teams. The junior teams have 6 weeks of Monday night games run by School Sport Canterbury and the seniors have 5 weeks. We used this as an extended trial period for our 2024 Senior A and B teams. This year we also have a Senior Boys' A team that will carry over to 2024. Our Junior A boy, Junior A and B Girls' teams attended Canterbury Champs which was held in Christchurch. Unfortunately, our Junior Girls' teams were put on a waiting list (with 3 other schools) for the SISS, due to the number of schools entered.

The Junior A Boys' team travelled to Dunedin to attend and were placed 4th in Division 2. This year has seen Volleyball grow by 13 and pass Netball to be the 3rd highest played sport in the school. Our focus for 2024 will be coach / referee development to ensure we can sustain this growth and provide a quality programme for our players. We also need to ensure we have the right balance of competitive and social teams.

Cricket

The 1st XI and 2nd XI’s have had a challenging end to the year. Both sides are filled with a lot of young talent who have shown a lot of growth and potential. Bevan Rich has joined us as 1st XI coach, Bevan’s work with the 1st XI and wider cricketing community is already having a significant impact on the development of cricket at our school, and we are excited for what is to come.

A select junior team competed in the North Canterbury round of the Junior Gillette Cup. In the first match against Ellesmere/Darfield, Rangiora bowled first restricting the opposition to 142 after their 16 overs with all team members contributing in the field. Xavior (23) and Corey (37) made a strong start to the chase, setting a platform for Ethan (28 not out) and Liam (31 not out) to complete the innings with a comfortable win!

Game 2 against Lincoln High School, Rangiora batted first, Ethan (83) and Liam (19) continued in strong form opening up with a solid partnership. Once Liam fell, batsmen did well to bat around Ethan rotating the strike to record 151 from our 16 overs. Heading into the field the team were confident in the total they had set. However, Lincoln came out firing scoring at a fast rate from the beginning. Lachie (1/15) and Fletcher (2/14) managed to slow them down, however missed chances were the story of the day with a number of dropped catches resulting in batsmen going on to make big scores. In the end Lincoln won the game with 16 balls remaining.

Day 2 saw Rangiora come up against Rolleston College. Rolleston won the toss choosing to bat first on a warm morning at Rangiora High School.

Rolleston started well reaching 146 for the loss of only two wickets. All nine Rangiora bowlers did well to control the run rate, backed up by an improved effort in the field. A few late wickets saw Rangiora restrict Rolleston to 176 from their 30 overs.

Rangiora started steadily with the bat being patient against the new ball, before two early wickets saw the pressure come on. The middle order of Lachie and Ethan showed composure coming together for a partnership of 98 to put the team back in control. The end of the match went right down to the wire with Lachie bringing up his maiden 50* and the Rangiora boys reaching the required total with 5 balls remaining.

Overall, the team had a great two days' cricket and have potential to be a very strong team in future years.