Prestigious Salter Trophy to Pelasio

King's ultimate prize

Tyron Pelasio won the prestigious Salter Trophy at the recent King's High School sports prizegiving. Tyron's skill in touch, rugby and athletics have earned him many accolades and rewards over the years including: member New Zealand under-17 touch team; New Zealand under-17 rugby training squad; member of the King's senior relay team that won the Otago and Otago-Southland schools titles. This is a major award and Tyron joins some illustrious winners from previous years.

King's junior cricket boys had a very successful visit to Geraldine last month for a pre-season tournament.

For the first time in nine years, the team returned unbeaten, a reflection perhaps of the work being undertaken in the cricket academy run by Nathan McCullum.

Joel Meade was in superb batting form (114 not out against Roncalli) and coach Darryl Paterson described it as "the best I have seen from a boy at this level".

The King's bowlers were also in great form, helping the team win both games comprehensively against strong opposition.

• St Hilda's Collegiate

Term four is a busy time at St Hilda's as the year 9-10 girls prepare for junior tournaments running this week. St Hilda's has teams competing in water polo, cricket, volleyball, touch and tennis on different days.

The First XI cricket team and senior touch team are preparing to travel to their national tournaments in Palmerston North and Hamilton respectively, while the athletes are training hard for the New Zealand schools championships in Wellington in December.

The junior volleyball team is competing at the Otago qualifying tournament and then travelling to Christchurch for the South Island junior volleyball championships.

The St Hilda's sports awards were held in late October and Rebecca Grant, a former St Hilda's head girl, spoke about her achievements, goals and the importance of balancing sporting and academic life.

Sports champions, service awards and blues were also presented during the evening, and recognition was made of the huge contribution by volunteer coaches.

Nominees for the major awards were acknowledged with winners being announced at the school prizegiving in December.

In the Edgar Cup nominations, there are 14 girls who have represented New Zealand or been placed at a national level.

• Dunstan High School

George Blackie, Liam Aitcheson, Tom Vessey and Georgia Vessey, of Dunstan High School, all competed in the Yunca Junior Cycling Tour of Southland, one of the premium junior tours in New Zealand. All the top riders in New Zealand competed as well as a large contingent from Australia.

The tour had six races over three days ranging from a 2.6 km time trial to 120km road stages.

All four pupils had a great tour and were in the top of their fields in all races.

Tom was first in the 120km race, third in the time trial and fourth overall for under-19 men.

Liam was fourth in the time trial and seventh overall in the under-17 men, George was 21st overall in the under-17 men and Georgia was 14th overall in the under-17 women.

This was the final junior tour for the 2011 season and the cumulative points over six tours were used to calculate the winners of the New Zealand junior points series.

Liam was first in the under-17 men for the year, Tom was third in the under-19 men, Georgia was fifth in the under-17 girls and George 14th in the under-17 boys.

To cap off a successful sporting year at Dunstan, Leigh Grove received the DHS Morrison Trophy for senior sportsman of the year, and Sophie Williamson won the Kay Cup as the senior sportswoman of the year.

• John McGlashan

The John McGlashan A trap shooting team travelled to Hamilton during the holidays. The boys competed in a variety of individual events as well as a five-man team contest.

The first team did exceptionally well to finish fourth from 53 teams in a North Island and New Zealand event, while the second team finished 10th.

The highlight was Patrick Heaney's selection in the South Island team and his contribution to winning the interisland clash.

He, Clint McAughtrie and the fast improving Hamish McKenzie were also selected to represent Otago.

Six of the boys reached finals and, after a shoot-off, Grant Ramsay gained fifth place in the single barrel.

• Taieri College

Over the past two weeks, Taieri College has had its senior prizegiving and blues evenings.

These functions allowed the school time to reflect upon the year that has been and the success of the pupils. Top achievers were recognised for their performances over the past year, with a record number of blues awarded to pupils who have represented their sports at the Otago level - 37 senior pupils and 54 junior pupils obtained this honour.

Taieri College's top two sporting pupils for 2011 were Holly Robinson, who will be attending the 2012 London Paralympics for athletics, and Robert Murray, who is trialling for the New Zealand swim team which will attend the London Olympics.

This year has been a particularly successful one at Taieri College, with a continued growth of sporting participation. More than 70% of pupils are involved in sport at the school.

The increased growth of the numbers playing sport can be attributed to the hard work of those staff involved in sport, along with the massive amount of support the school receives from the school community.

This hard work has resulted, in particular, in the growth of netball, hockey and futsal, with large numbers of junior pupils taking up these sports.

In addition, a learn to sail programme, led by members of the community, has resulted in the establishment of a sailing team which is training hard for the events coming up next year.

The sports council has, over the past two years, worked very hard on several areas to help promote and develop sport at Taieri College.

Their hard work has seen this year the purchase of two school vans to assist with the transporting of pupils to sports events, while the academy programme, which is a sports council initiative, has gone from strength to strength.

This year marked the introduction of a combined year 7-8 academy, and sport pro year 9 in addition to the already established senior academy.

Based on the success of these academies, in 2012 the school will have two separate academies at year 7 and year 8, plus a year 10 academy.

These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association Inc (OSSSA) which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual.

Contacts: Des Smith, Otago Regional Sports Director, PO Box 6303, Dunedin. Ph 470-1337 Email:des@osssa.org.nz Website:www.osssa.org.nz

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Calendar

OSSSA Junior Tournament Week
• Today: Tennis, Logan Park; softball, Ellis Park
• November 24: Touch and girls cricket, Kensington Oval
• November 25: Girls cricket, Kensington Oval
• November 28-December 1: South Island junior softball, Oamaru

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