Huge Wakatipu High School contingent competing at the Winter Tournament Week
It’s been a huge logistical exercise, but Wakatipu High School is sending 172 Wakatipu students to compete in 13 events across nine sporting disciplines around the country next week in this year’s Secondary Schools Winter Tournament Week events (Aug 26 – Sept 1).
Hot on the heels of WHS’s impressive summer sporting successes, the school is sending almost 40 percent more students than last year to this year’s Tournament Week.
Director of sport Laura Nathan says it’s a significant undertaking. For the first time the school will compete in the South Island Equestrian Championships – a new event created last year, in Christchurch, and Junior Boys and Girls Basketball tournaments in Dunedin. “There’s been huge growth in basketball with Central Otago competitions becoming stronger and stronger,” Nathan says. The Senior A Boys Basketball team will compete in Timaru.
There are high hopes for the school’s two ice hockey teams competing at the South Island Championships in Dunedin with the school winning the event consecutively for the last seven years. “Most play for the U15 and U18 Stampede,” Nathan says.
She’s also expecting big things from the school’s regional golf champions team of Yoonae Jeong, Nico Cheifetz and Noah Novacek, heading to the NZ Secondary School Championships. From there they’ll compete separately at the NZ Age Group Championships.
The First XI Girls and Boys Football teams will compete in Nelson and Timaru, while the Mixed Hockey team will compete at its South Island championships.
For the first time there’s a South Island Under 85kg Rugby Championship where the school’s senior team is headed, while Nathan’s expecting some fierce competition for the school’s U15 team at the South Island Co-ed Championships in Alexandra.
A young Senior A Netball team is aiming to make the top 10 in Invercargill. “We’re a state co-ed school up against some well-funded single sex schools,” Nathan says.
Caelan Briscoe, the school’s only New Zealand Secondary Schools Climbing Championships competitor, is heading to Tauranga. Caelan’s older Year 13 sister Azaria, and Year 13 student Lucy Sinclair, are in South Korea about to represent NZ at the (International Federation of Sport Climbing) World Youth Climbing Championships. They attended a five-day training camp before flying to Seoul.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes 35 coaches, teachers and adult volunteers will be making the school’s Winter Tournament Week happen across 12 events.
While it will be no mean feat co-ordinating the week, Nathan’s greatly encouraged by the massive numbers this year, boosted by school roll growth and quality pathways in each sport.
“It’s the highlight of high school for students, travelling and focusing on sport, having fun. These are unique opportunities and it’s awesome to see them all giving so much commitment,” she says. “We try to offer a real depth and breadth of sporting opportunities.”
It’s costing more than $70,000 to send the teams and parents are very grateful for a $30,000 Aotearoa Gaming Trust grant to help with accommodation, which has saved around $250 per student. Some teams have also fundraised.
Tens of thousands of students will be travelling around the country to various tournaments and championships next week.
