Sports Prefects - Brooke Callon and Brooke McAlwee:

Term four flew by with the seniors leaving relatively early into it. Before they left, we were able to host our end of year sports prize giving, with all practicing teams being recognised with Most Valuable and Most Improved awards. This was a great way to celebrate all the hard work that has been put in by our athletes as well as hand out the silverware. We were also able to hold our blues ceremony, where a number of students received sporting blues. Although this looked a bit different this year, with no parents or guest speaker, it was great that there was an option to watch this on a live stream. Congratulations to all students who received awards, but also to everyone who made sport at St Hilda’s successful for yet another year!

With all NZSS Sport sanctioned tournaments being cancelled, the majority of seasons were cut short. Instead of ending on a dull note with all the cancellations, Brooke and I thought we’d share 10 highlights from the year in the Sports Department...

Teacher vs Student games initiative
Great enthusiasm and participation in athletics and cross country
Year 7&8 cricket team qualifying for nationals
The variety of girls attending Les Mills classes
The successful implication of the new blues criteria
Senior A touch team winning South Islands for the first time ever
Celebrating student coaches at a shared breakfast
Huge uptake in St Hilda’s golf
A new initiative of walkie talkies group
Tokyo Olympic themed displays and quizzes

Although it has been an unpredictable year, Brooke and I have thoroughly enjoyed our time in the sports prefects role. We hope 2022 returns to some normality, with the hopes of Regional and National Tournaments going ahead, alongside all school-wide sports days. We also want to say a huge congratulations to Gemma Rowcroft and Bronte Crowe, for being named as the 2022 Sports Prefects. Both of us have had the privilege to be in teams with Gemma and Bronte and we know they are great sports leaders who will thrive in the role. Thanks and have a great summer, Brooke and Brooke :)

Aerobics - Gabi Horo:

The St Hilda’s Aerobics season has recently come to an end since our team competed at NZCAF Nationals, the last competition for the year! Unfortunately, the actual competition in Wellington was cancelled due to COVID regulations - however this did not stop our girls from performing some fabulous routines at the online nationals. A big thank you to NZCAF who managed to pull together this event to ensure the girls hard work didn’t go to waste! On the 6th of November, Dunedin athletes came together to film their routines before all the routines from across the country were streamed on the 13th of November. Some outstanding results included:

Chloe Woodhouse - 1st FISAF Junior duo (with Immy Morey OGHS)

Chloe Woodhouse - 1st Junior secondary open individual

Molly Wagner and Kyla Ashton - 3rd Secondary novice sport aerobic team

Cassie Horo and Sasha Lamb - 3rd Secondary open sport aerobic team

Zara Geddes - 3rd Senior Secondary open novice individual

Molly Wagner - 4th Pre-Chore secondary individual

Well done to all competitors. What a great season we’ve had!

Athletics - Emma McKay:

Due to COVID-19 forcing the cancellation of NZSSAA Track and Field and Road Race Championships there hasn’t been a lot of movement with SHCS athletics this term. These Championships were set to be held in Inglewood, Taranaki from December 16th to the 18th. Although there was disappointment of the event being cancelled, this hasn’t stopped the girls from continuing to train and push themselves over the winter period. Notable performances from this term; Zara Geddes gained 3rd place in the senior women's section at the Otago Spring 3000m challenge. Zara Geddes and Megan Foster placed 1st in the 4x 1000m women's team section at Hurring Relays. Billie Crowe, Emma McKay and Zara Geddes gained selection into the Otago Athletics Development Squad. These are some great achievements considering the circumstances the girls were faced with this year. We are looking forward to hearing about your future 2022 achievements!

Cricket - Jordan Meltzer:

Term 4 has been a great term for cricket at St Hilda's. Our year 7&8 team were training hard in preparation for the NZC Shield which was unfortunately cancelled. Now, they've been playing in the weekly Wednesday competitions at Tonga Park. This provided the young students of our school the opportunity to express their skills as their hard work can be recognised. Thank you to Kirsten, Mr Armstrong and Mrs Baker for helping coach this team to where they are now.

Our first XI team had the amazing opportunity of playing the Christchurch Girls 1st XI team at the Willows cricket ground during the term three holidays. Although the girls didn't score a huge amount of runs, they put up an amazing fight where Christchurch girls had to work for their win. This team was also training hard in preparation for their nationals in Palmerston North in December which was also cancelled. With a few girls leaving the team this year, this has been devastating as they felt they had a strong chance at getting a placing. Thankfully with the help of Will Deerness and Mrs Parker, a game was organised against the old girls of St Hilda's on the 5th of December.

Golf - Chloe Light & Priyanka McKenzie-Patel:

Though we have had no competitions under Covid restrictions, Golf at St Hilda’s has been exciting. We had girls having some lessons again, however, these were more one on one lessons where they got to record themselves on film and work on their techniques. Some of us got to show off these techniques in ‘She Loves Golf’ that is held every Tuesday afternoon - where students/women have a wee competition. The St Hilda's students have also broken out of Dunedin for a change in scenery and greens, to have some hits at the Te Anau and Invercargill golf courses recently. This year lots of improvement has been made and we are all excited to whip out our visors and sunscreen for some long summer golfing days these holidays.

See you on the green, Hilda's Golf Girls :)

Rock Climbing - Amelia Kirk:

Rock climbing has continued throughout Term 3 and 4, with lunchtime sessions that are run twice a week. It has been great watching some of the students become more passionate and committed to climbing in general, now able to complete routes with ease that previously were a struggle. The NIBS (National Indoor Bouldering Series) bouldering competition was held in July this year. It was great to see Greer Egan, Tessa McConachie, and Amelia Kirk representing the school at this event. It was unfortunate that the South Island Secondary Schools climbing competition was cancelled in September due to COVID, as we had a strong team entered who had been training hard for this big event.

Rowing - Pippa Fulton:

Term 4 has seen the beginning of the 2021/2022 rowing season. With a squad of 31 students, including 15 new rowers committing to the sport, we have had an awesome few weeks getting to know this much larger crew. It is great to see rowing at St Hilda’s attracting more young sportspeople and everyone is looking forward to a great season ahead.

This season St Hilda’s rowing welcomed 2 new coaches, Mike Hill and Tarina Crampton along with last season's assistant coach Millie Davenport. The squad has competed in two early-season regattas, these were on the Dunedin Harbor in some interesting conditions. Despite this, everyone in the squad put in maximum effort and I was happy to see lots of smiles and laughter. The crew was delighted to come away with some awesome results considering how early in the season we are. These regattas were a great introduction to racing for the novices and a good refresher for the returning rowers.

St Hilda's also participated in the annual Otago Rowing Association Indoor Rowing (erg) Champs. This was great practice for racing and again we came away with some awesome results. Our training is now gearing up for our main season regattas which are held at Lake Ruataniwha, Twizel. The first of which is Otago Champs in 2 weeks time. In preparation for this, we have a training camp on the Henley river this weekend. Squad Hilda's is looking forward to a summer full of rowing, hard work, and lots of fun!

Tennis - Maia Hunter:

Term 4 has been another enjoyable time for tennis! With the warmer weather, comes the beginning of summer interclub season for many St Hilda's players. This involves playing every Saturday, in both singles and doubles matches. It is a great way to stay in form for the 2022 season, serving as great game preparation for anticipated St Hilda’s tournament in 2022 (such as the annual quadrangular tournament).

Next year we will also look to see the introduction of the very first St Hilda's Collegiate School Singles Tournament. This tournament was aimed to run this year but due to a lack of time, it will look to be held in 2022. There are three trophies to be awarded. The Senior champion will receive the Ruddenklau Cup, the Intermediate Champion will gain the Intermediate Cup and the Junior champion will be awarded the Cook Cup. This tournament will most likely be held on the St Hilda's tennis court, giving the girls a chance to showcase their tennis skills in front of their peers. Overall it’s been a great year of tennis at St Hilda’s despite various cancellations due to Covid-19. With new skills, players, and opportunities, St Hilda’s is well set for another great year of tennis for 2022!

Touch - Gemma Rowcroft:

Term 4 touch has been filled with excitement and plenty of nail-biting games! Just recently, both of the St Hilda’s Junior A and B touch teams competed in the Otago Secondary School Touch Tournament. The teams both displayed high levels of touch along with a positive team culture, that allowed them to perform to the best of their ability while having fun. The Junior A’s came second in the tournament with the B’s having some tough games but bet Queens 1-0 in an exciting game.

The Year 7 and 8 touch team have also been having some really good games on their weekly Thursday night competition too. Unfortunately for the Senior A’s, the New Zealand Secondary Schools Nationals was cancelled, which was disappointing considering the great potential they showed during their weekly games. However, many of the girls made an Otago representative team which is a great achievement with many exciting tournaments to come!

Triathlon - Sophie Shallard:

Triathlon at St Hilda’s has been pretty quiet this term with no competitions to compete at. However, I know some of our athletes have been training hard and chipping away behind the scenes to prepare for upcoming ones! Early next year we have the Wanaka Challenge Secondary Schools event, (which anyone can give a go!), as well as others. Term one next year is a biggie for triathlon events, so make sure you get amongst it and have a go!

Volleyball - Ellie Cockburn:

Term 4 volleyball has consisted of many trials for the Senior A Volleyball team. Every Monday they played in senior high school games in the Premier Girls Division One and continued to work hard at trainings every Tuesday. The team developed and came together for an exciting season, and had some very close games against some very competitive teams. Tough competition caused the girls to work harder and push themselves to come together as a team, leading them to develop both their team and individual skills.

The Junior A Volleyball team participated in the Friday Night Junior Girls Division 1 and Otago Junior Champs. This term saw the return of 6 players from Term 1 and two new players. They worked hard throughout the term at training, developing their knowledge of the game and learning a new rotation system. In terms of the Friday night competition, we had great results. There was an 8 team round robin format and we managed to place 2nd in the competition losing only to Kavanagh and Columba.

The Junior Otago Champs was the target of the term, due to Junior South Islands in Nelson being cancelled because of COVID-19. The team was disappointed by this, so the excitement for Otago Champs was high. They placed 4th out of a total of 11 teams and played some of their best volleyball throughout the two days, with a notable game being a tight Semi-final against Bayfield A where they lost 2-1. To cap off the tournament Mya Haigh (Captain) was selected for the Junior Otago Champs tournament team. The girls had a successful term, 7 of the 8 players are Year 10’s and will continue on into the Senior programme in 2022. The Year 7&8’s continued in Term 2 to participate in Friday games against other schools and weekly Thursday practice. Hopefully they carry their new skills over to the next year in junior high school games.

Water Polo - Olivia Brown:

In Term 4 water polo was back on and we were very lucky to have a season. On the 29th - 31st of October, the Year 7&8’s competed in the South Island Tournament which was held in Dunedin. They were challenged and they played hard, which resulted in some wins. They have come out of it with clear goals and are fired up for more competition.

In the school competition, the junior team competed against tough teams and came out with some good wins. And the Senior A team have had some awesome wins and are competing for some of the top spots in their grade! They have learned heaps with the help of the coaches Kyle, Eric, Luana, Kate, Olivia, and manager Mrs Almey. We hope all teams have come away with lots of experience and are ready for the competition next year.

2022 Dates