These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association (OSSSA), which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.
Blue Mountain College
Congratulations to the Blue Mountain College A netball team, which won the B grade at the SISS netball tournament and has been promoted to A grade for 2018.
The side contested the club final against a star-studded ex High team. Although not gaining the win, the team displayed awesome netball skills, never giving up and was awarded the Popenhagen Trophy for the top finishing secondary school in Eastern Southland along with the runner-up trophy for the MLT premier grade.
Vicky Weller was also awarded the coach of the year trophy.
At the Southern Region Rugby Awards at Owaka on August 25, four pupils were awarded the top age group southern region certificates: Sam Kelly (under-14), Paige McIvor (junior girls), Kane Moore (under-17) and Zach McKenzie (under-18).
Jack Blair secured a spot in the Otago under-65kg rugby team and Jack Hazlett will represent the school in the Otago under-48kg team.
Otago Country rugby representatives are: under-18, Daniel Moyle, Zach McKenzie and Kane Moore; under-16, U16 Josh Hines and Braydon Mills, under-14, Sam Kelly. Sam Johnston and George Brenssell made the Otago Country under-38kg team. Blue Mountain College new recruit Jaemes Ward was also named in the Southland under-48kg team.
Blue Mountain College also fielded a girls' rugby team in the Southland wide secondary school competition. Four girls were selected in the Otago Country team: Maddy Calder, Sian Evans, Kim Hall and Paige McIvor.
On August 9, Blue Mountain College sent two claybird shooting teams to Roxburgh to participate in the annual interschool exchange against Roxburgh Area School, South Otago High School and Lawrence Area School. The A team with Jackson Kelly, Zach McKenzie, Zane Purser, John Thomson and Nick Stark won this competition with the B team third behind South Otago High School.
Columba College
Congratulations to Caitlin Deans, who won six open gold medals and broke the South Island 100m backstroke record at the recent South Island Championships in Dunedin. Molly Law won an open gold medal for her 100m freestyle.
The Columba College senior A team of novice curlers claimed third place in their competition. The team would like to thank Simon Noble for his coaching and support throughout this beginning season and will look to progress further next year with the experience they have gained.
Columba College took a team of 16 to Otago-Southland Ski Championships and brought home three placings.
The ski team of Ember McAughtrie, Abbey Hamilton, Liberty Vile, Jessie O'Connell won the giant slalom title and Liberty Vile won the individual giant slalom event.
Congratulations to Siena Snow for gaining second place in the girls' snowboarding competition.
The hockey First XI competed in the top New Zealand Federation Cup/Marie Fry tournament and finished pool play strongly, gaining a spot in the top 16. Their position in Federation Cup for 2018 is secure and they have finished the highest Columba College has finished in the history of hockey at our college.
The football First XI finished fourth in the Invercargill satellite tournament. Mikayla Gray was voted MVP and was the team's top goal scorer with eight in total.
The Senior A netball team finished in fourth position in Christchurch at the South Island tournament. Coached by Megan Graamans and Lauren Piebenga, the team has trained hard and thoroughly deserves this accolade.
The Columba Senior A Basketball played in the South Island Tournament in Dunedin.
The team rose to the challenge of high calibre teams. It was was missing a few players but pushed through with only seven pupils on the roster to gain 12th place.
Kavanagh College
The school has had a very successful winter tournament week, with the junior girls' basketball team winning in Ashburton, beating OGHS 57-51 in the final after coming back from a 20 point deficit. This team has a lot of talent and credit must go to head coach Gerard Mulin, who has put in a tremendous amount of hard work and time into Kavanagh College basketball.
Mike Waterworth can also take credit for his organisation.
The junior boys also competed well in Ashburton, attending the tournament for development.
A senior boys' basketball team competed in Auckland.
The Kavanagh First XI football team also won the Linwood Cup in Dunedin, beating Papanui 4-2 in the final at the Caledonian ground. The team went through pool play unbeaten and carried this form through the playoffs.
The team was also a finalist in the local competition this year. This is great reward for hard-working coach Richard Kerr-Bell, who will now step down as coach of the first XI boys. Richard has coached the First XI over the past few seasons and had great success.
The girls' first XI had its highest finish at the Lotto Sportswear tournament in Invercargill, finishing 11th.
The Senior A netball team finished 19th at the SI Secondary school tournament in Christchurch. The mixed hockey team finished seventh out of 12 teams in its tournament beating Rangiora 5-2 in the seventh and eighth playoff. The side had a very difficult pool with a couple of narrow losses early on which cost it a top four spot.
Congratulations to all players, coaches and managers who supported all our teams.
Mount Aspiring College
The recent sports exchange with Wakatipu High School was a huge success. Held in Queenstown, 13 teams competed in rugby, football, netball, volleyball, hockey and basketball. The overall result was a draw, and both schools are keen to repeat the exchange in 2018 as it was an ideal build-up to winter tournament week.
Mount Aspiring College teams had to dig deep at winter tournament this year. The under-15 rugby team achieved a great result, finishing fourth at the Rural Livestock tournament in Greymouth. The football girls' 1st XI finished sixth, after a few very close games and the final game going to penalty shootout. The mixed XI hockey team played extremely well, beating the overall winners in the pool play, but were a little unlucky in the draw and points count-back, finishing sixth overall.
The netball girls side played hard to improve its ranking and moved up a few places in the A tournament. With many of the football boys' first XI in their final year at school, the team was determined to give it its best shot.
While not achieving the place hoped for, the boys can be proud of their efforts and the commitment shown to the team. All players will have learnt a lot from the tournament and appreciated the opportunity to play back-to-back games over several days. A big shout out to the coaches, managers, umpires and parents who have been involved with the teams this season.
Otago Boys' High School
Last weekend, the curling team played in the South Island Schools finals in Dunedin. The team finished second behind Maniototo 1 10-6 in the final.
The junior basketball players competed in the NZ Junior Secondary Schools Zone four tournament, finishing second overall. It was a very successful tournament for the team, which won four games before losing to Waimea College in pool play. OBHS then met Waimea again in the final. In this game, OBHS made Waimea work a lot harder to win the title, with the final result 79-62 to the team from Richmond.
The senior football team took part in the Lotto Premier competition, with 32 teams competing. OBHS finished 16th, going down 9-1 to St Andrews College in the final game.
The senior hockey team played in the Johnson Cup. The semifinal was by far its toughest match, as it beat one of the favourites, Cashmere, 3-2 in a nail-biter.
In the final, OBHS played Southland Boys' High school in a very tight game and the Dunedin team lost 1-0.
At the under 15 rugby tournament in Wellington, the Otago Boys' side played six games over the week. The games against Wesley College and Wellington College were close and in the final for 13 and 14th place another close game ended in a 29-22 loss to St Patrick's College.
The senior basketball team, playing in Dunedin in the South Island qualifying tournament, won its first three games convincingly in pool play but then lost to Shirley Boys' High School, 106-99, and Cashmere High, 82-76. The team showed resilience to finish ninth overall
The OBHS chess teams had a very successful day with the senior team winning the South Island Secondary Schools title and the junior team finishing a creditable fourth.
At the Otago Secondary Schools squash tournament in Dunedin, OBHS 1 won the A section and the OBHS 2 team was victorious in the B section.
Queen's High School
Queen's winter sports teams have had a very successful season. The coaches, managers, staff and whanau support is a vital part of this success. The hockey, ice hockey, rugby and football teams all finished third in their grades. The basketball teams finished in the top four and seven of the nine netball teams made finals playoffs.
The senior A netball and football teams travelled to tournaments in Christchurch and Invercargill and both finished higher than last year. They had some good wins, very close games and enjoyed the experience of playing against teams from outside the Otago region.
Queen's is pleased to be offering a variety of summer sports including: volleyball, futsal, touch, cricket, water polo, rowing and handball.
Rower Leah Anderson has been selected as a travelling reserve for the Otago Interprovincial rowing team to compete in October.
Queen's is always looking for opportunities to introduce students to new sporting opportunities. Recently, all students were able to try indoor bowls at lunchtimes and were given information on indoor bowls.
Tokomairiro High School
Tokomairiro High School had a very successful tournament week. It was the first time the 1st XI boys' hockey team had been away at tournament week. it played some great hockey, beating against Mackenzie College and Geraldine High, coming away with sixth place in the Coaches Cup tournament at Oamaru. It was a great experience for this young team, who will all be together again next year.
The Toko A netball team was 11th this year in the B grade of the SISS netball competition, a huge jump on last year's tournament, as it gained 14 placings. It was a great way to finish the season as it was the last game for the school for more than half of the team.
Mackenzie Frost made the B grade tournament team.
Recent selections in Otago Country Rugby representative teams include Harry Greer in the under-14 team and Nic Clark, Conner Phillips, Ben Lister and Millar McElrea in the under-13 team.
