At the end of last term, our annual Sportsman of the Year award ceremony was held.

Spartans Sport Junior Individual Award

Finalists: Danie Beukes, Jake Beaumont, Zakai Hedges, Nikou Fox, Ben Isles, Matthew Fairbrother.

Winner: Jake Beaumont

Jake has had a fantastic year in this new sport at SBHS and excelled with natural power and talent.

Jake holds the records for highest Olympic lifts for any Junior at Shirley Boys High School and also highest lifts for all Under 15 aged lifts at the ‘Canterbury Strength Institute.’

Regionally, Jake received a Silver Medal at South Island Championships in the 49kg class and has South Island titles and the records in this class as well as the 55kg class.

Recently,  Jake recieved a Gold Medal at Secondary School Nationals for the Under 55kg class which helped the team to its 2nd overall placing.

Jake was selected to represent New Zealand in Brisbane, Australia.

Spartan Sport Junior Team of the Year

Finalists: Rowing Under 15 Eight and Octuple Sculls, Junior Volleyball A

Winner: Rowing Under 15 Eight and Octuple Sculls

The Rowing Under 15 Eight and Octuple Sculls had a fantastic season on the water.

In the 2019 Canterbury Junior Regatta they placed:

• 2nd – in the Under 15 Octuple division and
• 2nd – in the Under 15 Eight

Onto the South Island Secondary Schools Championships and the team placed:

• 2nd again – in the Under 15 Eight and
• 4th – in the Under 15 Octuple

The Maadi Cup Nationals saw both crews suffer a significant injury in the heats. Despite this, the Octuple in particular, competed very well to make the National Final where we finished with a 7th in Under 15 Octuple.

The Rowing Under 15 Eight and Octuple Sculls was:

• Kuhurangi Wetini
• Zakai Hedges
• Joel Arona
• Alex Fletcher
• Zander Wiltshire
• Ryan Facoory
• Jayden Sincock
• Lachie Osikai-Wilson
• Will Pirker
• Tane Norton

Blues 

To be awarded a sports blue a student must have: 

(i) Reached a standard, which in the opinion of the coach, is outstanding and warrants the award of a blue

(ii) Meet the “Shirley Man” criteria, and

(iii) Been a worthy representative of the school.

Those receiving a Blue for the first time are:

• Hamish Church | Hockey
• Layton Cahill | Australian Rules
• Jay Hill-Cattermole | Rugby & Touch
• Mark Zimmerman | Football
• Uzair Qamar | Olympic Weightlifting
• Jack Wilkes | Olympic Weightlifting
• Matthew Smith | Rowing
• Greg Rodger | Basketball
• Loyal Patelesio Basketball
• Josh Watson | Volleyball
• William Osai | Volleyball
• Lucas Dowell | Rock Climbing
• Quinn Bungard  | Cricket
• Josh Overend | Football

Two students have received re-awards this year:

• Liam Walker | Canoe Sprints 
• Ethan De Rose | Speed Skating 

Two students have received third year blues badge this year:

• Reece Falck | Tennis
• Troy Hulston | Volleyball & a re-award in Beach Volleyball 

All Rounder: The Petrie Cup

Finalists: Jay Hill-Cattermole, Uriah Tuli, Tahlor Cahill, Troy Hulston

Winner: Tahlor Cahill

In Rugby Tahlor plays for the 1st XV in the second row, quite an achievement for only a 16 year old. He is a goal-kicking lock which is also extremely rare!

Tahlor’s performances in the SBHS 1st XV jersey earned him selection in the Canterbury Under 16 team whhich is about to start their Southern tournament.

In Water Polo, Tahlor is the leader of an upcoming team. He is the leading scorer for the Shirley Senior Academy as well as  Top 10 scorer tournament-wide at 2019 South Island Tournament. Selflessly, Tahlor is also involved in coaching and training younger players.

In Sevens,  Tahlor went to the Condor Sevens in Auckland last year with the junior team.

In Volleyball,  Tahlor was a part of the junior A volleyball team which placed 2nd in Canterbury. Unfortunately he was unable to travel to the South Islands as he was away with the sevens.

To cap of an extremely busy time for Tahlor, he was also playing 2nd XI Cricket for the school.

Individual Sportsman of the Year 

Finalists: Reece Falck, Liam Walker, Troy Hulston, Hamish Church, Ethan De Rose, Jack Wilkes, Lucas Dowell, Dylan Payne, Nick Sinclair

Winner: Reece Falck

After winning our Supreme Sportsman of the Year award in 2017, Reece has had another successful year in tennis regionally, nationally and internationally.

He was an integral member of our 3-man team who won the Secondary School’s National Team Cup in March 2019.

Regionally, he is the current Canterbury Men’s Open Champion. He played in the Canterbury under 16 team that came 2nd in the National Teams Event in Auckland earlier this year. Reece also played No.1 in the South Island Team that won the event in May this year and was awarded the 2019 Canterbury Junior Male player of the year.

Not only has Reece played successfully at school and regional levels, but he continues to impress nationally, winning titles in the u18 and u16 categories.

On top of representing New Zealand in the Junior Davis Cup Team last year, Reece has been regularly competing in ITF tournaments and improving his world ranking.

There are six levels of tournament on the ITF World Tennis Tour for juniors. At the top end are Grade A Tournaments, which include the four Grand Slam events, followed by Grades 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. In the past year, Reece has travelled to Vietnam to play in Grade 5 and grade 4 tournaments where he won doubles and singles titles. He has played in a Grade 4 tournament in Malaysia, winning a doubles title and was a finalist in the singles title. He has played in an ITF Tournament here in his hometown and won a doubles title. Playing in these  tournaments and earning points, helps to increase his player ranking. Building on from these wins and experiences, Reece has played in Grade 2 ITF tournaments in both Fiji and Australia this year and made it to play off stages in both tournaments. For this level of tournament, a world ranking is necessary for acceptance.

Reece’s current Junior World Ranking is 285 and continues to improve.

In his final year at SBHS, Reece is now looking at scholarships to the USA to study and continue his tennis for next year.

Team of the Year

Finalists: Olympic Weightlifting, 1st XI Football, Senior A Basketball, Senior A Tennis

Winner: Senior A Tennis

The Senior A tennis team is managed by Miss Johnson.

To increase school and player participation, Tennis NZ expanded the New Zealand Secondary Schools Tennis Championships in 2019 and included the New Zealand Secondary Schools Tennis Cup Competition. This saw the national tournament increasing from 8 boys schools competing to 20 teams.

Reece Falck, Jordan Edwards and Luca Landells, all talented players, superbly represented SBHS in the Team Cup that was held at Nga Puna Wai.

Played over five  days, the SBHS Senior A Tennis team was seeded No. 1 and dominated their competition. Winning all pool play, the team made it to the play-offs and it was only here that they dropped their first set. In total, the boys played 19 sets of tennis, winning 17 of these and conceded only 30 games in the 135 games played.

Shirley defeated Fielding High School in the final to become the inaugural winners of the 2019 National Tennis Team Cup event.

The team was:

• Reece Falck
• Jordan Edwards
• Luca Landells

Sportsman of the Year

Now to the supreme award, the John Mullins Trophy:

The three candidates are:

• SENIOR A TENNIS – for winning the Team of the year cup.
• REECE FALCK – for winning the Ind Sportsman of the Year Cup.
• TAHLOR CAHILL - for winning the Petrie Cup for best all-rounder

Winner: Reece Falck