Head of Sport Report

With the delay in the winter sport season starting, many of our girls have been itching to take the court, field, turf and ice rink. Since coming back into school, we have seen an increase in girls wanting to give sports a try. While we were concerned about the covid environment and how that might affect our sport numbers, there has been an increase in numbers in Hockey and Rugby with the same number of teams in Netball and Basketball which is fantastic! Hockey, Rugby 7s, premier Basketball and Netball and Curling have all started late this term and so the energetic buzz around the school is alive and kicking.

As we head into term 3, we look forward to seeing all the Netball and Basketball teams out there, football and badminton will get underway as well. Our annual winter quad exchange with Columba College, St Margaret’s College and Craighead Diocesan is still going ahead with Columba hosting in the first week of August. This year, we have introduced Basketball and Football to the traditional sports of netball, hockey, badminton and debating. It will be fantastic to see all the girls out there competing given some sports have lost bigger tournaments later on in the year.

At this stage our school cross country has been postponed but hopefully we can find a later date to still hold this event. Swimming Sports has been booked for 21st September.

Term 3 is a busy period in the school calendar, with the number of sports, small tournaments and academic requirements all now pushed into 10 weeks. It is important to remember that rest and recovery is vital to an individual's development and finding balance with all activities to get through this term. Stay relaxed, be mindful but also remember to have FUN!

Sport Prefect Report

It is safe to say that this term has not turned out the way we thought it may have at the beginning of the year. Usually this time of the year sees the end of Summer sport and transition into the new Winter season, but as we all know significant interruption has hindered this usually exciting time. Summer sport saw a dull end, and winter sport was barely able to get off its feet as a result of the disappointing interruption. Due to this, it has been a busy end of term, with plenty of time being spent catching up on sport games and trainings. Although Covid-19 has had a major impact on sports as we know it, this term has still seen eagerness from the school to get back into the sporting scene. With such a large portion of our year stuck away from sport, we are buzzing to see sport return to normality. Following a rejuvenating holiday, we aim to make a strong return, and finish the year with heaps of enthusiasm and competitiveness.

Sports that have begun this term, or will begin soon into term three include hockey, football, basketball, netball, curling, and rugby. Within these exciting sports finally starting up, we will see them take the field to start back up the sporting culture our school loves. Although seasons have been shortened and some tournaments cancelled, plenty of these teams have exciting seasons coming up, with amended draws and modified tournaments offering plenty of opportunity for sport to continue. As a whole school, we are also looking forward to swimming sports next term in September where we continue to see high involvement every year.

After attending a Dunedin schools prefect workshop in term one, we have introduced a new initiative this term, of which we will carry through to term three. This is implementation of Les Mills fitness classes at school. During lockdown, we relied on online classes such as these to keep fit and active, which are longer accessible without a price. We understand that attending a gym can be expensive, lowering the participation that we wish to see. To get around the cost barrier, we have brought these classes to school for the students, meaning no longer should cost be a burden on involvement and engagement. So far, this has had a really positive response as the girls are both eager and excited to join.

What we have known sport to be in the past, just hasn’t been able to happen this term, but with the uncertainty experienced over these troubling times, comes excitement as we are finally able to get back into sport once again.

Sarah and Danielle

Sport Liaison Reports

Aerobics

Term 2 has been a term full of training and preparing routines for the aerobics girls. Isabella Tierney and Trinity Maydon had been selected to compete in the Super Series Aerobics competition in Australia which was to take place this term but unfortunately, this was cancelled due to the circumstances. We still want to recognize their big achievement in getting selected for this competition though.

We have 48 athletes who are going to be competing in the regional aerobics competition on the 15th - 16th of August in Invercargill this year in their respective categories. For those girls who are successful in this competition, they will then go on to compete at the national aerobics competition from the 19th - 20th of September held in Dunedin.

Football

The St Hilda’s Football season has been pretty quiet recently with the competition not officially starting up until next term. However, a recent friendly match vs Columba saw St Hilda’s take a 1-0 victory. This looks very promising for our season ahead with many young ones coming up and some great talent. We also have a 2nd Xl team who’s competition will be beginning the start of next term. Unfortunately due to COVID, the first Xl will no longer be attending the national tournament in Taupo, however, we are lucky enough to still be going ahead with a tournament in Christchurch later this year. With this change, we are hopeful for a great result and looking to take the number one spot in the south Island.

Rugby

St Hilda’s rugby is now back in full swing and the girls participating couldn’t be happier to be back out on the field with their friends. This season there is a 7s competition running for four weeks, our numbers have grown significantly this year and we have six 7s teams entered in the local Wednesday competition, one year nine team coached by Tony Brown, three year ten teams coached by Grant Milne, Tia Clark and Gareth Taylor and two senior teams coached by Alan West and Jess Sutherland. We have just had our first round of 7’s which saw the girls come away with a combined total of seven wins from nine games which is a great effort from the girls first week back. After the 4 weeks of 7s, we will switch to a seven-week season of 15s for the seniors and 10s for the juniors. There will be one XV 15s team and then three 10s teams one yr9 and two yr10. It is great to see the large number of girls that have signed up to play this season as it's the largest number of girls we have had in many years and the most number of teams we have seen entered by St Hilda’s in a season. We are looking forward to watching everyone develop their skills and see where both the 7s and then 15s and 10s seasons go and the results that will come from the hard work and commitment that the girls are showing.

Basketball

With a slow start to the basketball season for 2020, the St Hilda’s teams are looking forward to a good season ahead. We have 17teams enrolled in the senior Friday night or Monday intermediate competitions. This consists of both competitive teams that play at the Edgar Centre and social teams that play at school gyms around Dunedin. Currently, only Senior A and Junior A teams have begun games with the rest of them starting at the beginning of Term three.

St Hilda’s has had a number of girls who have been selected in representative basketball Otago teams. Holly Rowcroft, Kyla Ashton, Caitlyn Ring, and Charlotte Aburn have been selected in the U13 grade. For the U15’s, Ella Soutby, Grace Keno, Libby Challis, Laura Ring, and Sofia Tutty are representing Otago. And in the U17 team, Grace Southby, Jaymee Meffan, and Brooke Callon have been selected. Good luck to all these girls for their national tournaments later in the year.

Both the Junior and Senior A teams welcome a new coach to their teams this year. Lisa Wallbutton who is a former player for the Tall Ferns and current manager for the Tall Ferns and Gold Rush basketball teams has taken on this role. Old girl and current Tall Ferns player, Zoe Richards is helping out with the Senior A team also. After losing some key players in the Senior A side at the end of last season, the team is in a rebuilding phase but has shown some promising signs in the first two rounds of competition. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, this year, both senior and junior South Island Secondary School tournaments have been cancelled. However, the addition of basketball to the annual winter quadrangular tournament will provide the Senior team with something to look forward to.

It has been great to see such a large number of girls taking part in, and improving their skill sets. We look forward to seeing the success continue throughout the remainder of the season. Good luck!

Harriers

The Harriers Group has had an exciting last few weeks. Tilly, our four legged school friend, has been a new addition to the weekly running group! Tilly and the girls are very excited to get out and about. We have found that Tilly is a great pace setter and keeps everyone running very quickly!

With the recent move to Level 1, Cross Country events are looking more promising.

We are always happy to welcome more girls to join Harriers - it’s a great way to get some exercise as well as getting some fresh air during the lunch break. The Harriers Group runs twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Keen to give it a try? Please meet on the steps by the gymnasium at the start of lunchtime. A shout out to all the Harriers girls and Mr Harris!

Curling

Last week the curling teams began the season for 2020. This year a team of 4 Year 13’s took on the challenge of learning how to curl. Olivia Andrew, Ella Dixon, Rose Roberts and Natayla Skelton had their first “Give it a go” day on Wednesday where they learnt how to slide out of the hatch. Lots of laughs and smiles were had along with a great amount of improvement after just 1 hour. They will have another training day next week and get into their games in Term 3. Meanwhile, the experienced team consisting of Danielle Bain, Anna Clarke, Charlotte Hutton-Atkins and Ruby Kinney had their first game of the season taking on Otago Boys. Their first end was a pearler by getting 2 stones up but it went downhill from there. They ended up losing with a score of 6-2. The main thing is that we are all excited to be back on the ice playing and look forward to the season ahead.

Hockey

As term 2 comes to an end, the beginning of the hockey season has looked quite different. The school competition eventually started and has been running for the past two weeks. It is fair to say that St Hildas have got the largest school participation with 8 teams over the 3 grades.

Our Senior A have started off the season well and had a tight match up with Columba last week, drawing 0-0. They are playing in the quadrangular tournament at the beginning of next term and are working hard to prepare for tournament week held in Christchurch next term also. Our Junior A teams are both playing great hockey, with the 9A’s doing extremely well in division two and the 10A’s also doing very well in division one alongside the top Senior teams.

With all national representative tournaments cancelled, Otago hockey have been running programmes to replace the representative season this year, which many St Hildas students are participating in.

We wish all hockey players the best of luck for the season ahead and hope to see success across the grades.

Netball

St Hilda’s netball is back up and running after lockdown. With trials for year 7 and 8, 9 and 10 completed. Our Senior A and B team had their first preseason game on the weekend. Our Senior A had a good tussle with last season's winners Physed A. However, Physed took the win in the end but the season is looking very positive for the Senior A’s. The Senior B had a convincing win against Harbour A 46-37 so the season is also looking promising for them too. All other teams do not start back playing until next term. In the meantime, the girls have been participating in some preseason skills and fitness on Monday nights to get everyone up and running around again. Both the SISS and JSISS tournaments have been cancelled, but smaller modified tournaments have been organised. The Senior A will head to Invercargill for 3 days, Year 9 & 10A teams will compete in a 2 day Otago Champs and the 7&8’s will also have a day tournament in August. The season is going to be short but a good one this year and all of the girls are looking forward to saturday games going ahead when we come back from the holidays.