Waitaki Boys’ High School junior basketball side came agonisingly close to winning back-to-back Otago titles.

They lost the final of the Otago secondary schools junior boys A grade against Trinity Catholic College last week.  

Despite the disappointment of missing out on the title, coach Ian Cathcart was  proud of his team.

“To back up and get to the final again is a credit to some of those boys and the work they’ve been putting in.

“It’s hard to win two years in a row, it doesn’t happen very often so for us to make the final again after winning last year I thought was a really good effort.”

Boston Cathcart  was also named in the all-star five for the competition.

Each coach votes on their top five players and they are all collated to make a team.

The year 10 guard exploded for 52 points in their quarterfinal.

The school’s senior also finished third to round out an impressive season for Waitaki Boys’.

The senior team was full of youth which was exciting, Cathcart said.

“In our starting five we’ve got two year 11 [students] and a year 10 in it so we’re pretty young.”

The juniors will attend their South Island tournament in Christchurch this weekend and the seniors will do the same next week.

The girls’ teams for St Kevin’s College led the way in 2026.

Their junior side finished second, losing their final last week  against Columba College, while the seniors earned a third place finish.

Liam Direen  coached both teams and said it was an “awesome” season

“We had a bit of a mix of girls playing in both teams which was quite pleasing, so I had six junior girls inside the senior [team].”

He was pleased to see their hard work this season pay off.

“The training standard was lifted, I asked them to play a style of play which was simple and fairly hard working.

“The girls bought into it really well and although there were some times during the season in which we struggled a wee bit, for the most part it worked out in the end.

“A second place finish for the juniors, that was probably the best finish for a St Kevin’s basketball team that we’ve had since I’ve been involved the part 10 years.”

The junior team head away to their South Island tournament this weekend and Direen hoped in the future the girls teams could attend national events as well.

St Kevin’s boys teams also enjoyed a successful campaign with the seniors finishing fourth and the juniors coming in sixth place.