These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association (OSSSA), which is sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.
King's High School
The school has just completed the annual Interschool fixtures for the year with a trip to Southland Boys' in the last week of June. In all of the Interschools this year the competition has been extremely close; this was no different.
King's came away with an overall 6-4 victory over SBHS after wins for the football first XI 11-2, hockey first XI 5-0, smallbore shooting 901-898, trapshooting 99-97, senior golf three and a-half to a half and senior A basketball 101-71 over the SBHS opposition.
Tame Govaerts competed at the SISS swimming champs recently in Invercargill. Tame won four titles at this meet in the 50m, 100m, 200m breaststroke and 400m freestyle.
During the holidays, King's was well represented in Otago basketball sides competing in their respective age group championships. Angus Cameron, Jack Muir, Dallas Hartmann and Shaquille Berwick represented Otago under-15 boys in Wellington.
D'Angelo Wade, Liam Ayson and Chanse Peita represented Otago under-17 boys at North Harbour. Olly McCombie and Josh Aitcheson represented Otago under-19 in Nelson. After the under-19 tournament, Josh Aitcheson was once again selected to attend the Junior Tall Black trial.
The hockey boys also had a busy time during the holidays. Dylan Thomas, Malachi Buschl, Finn Ward, Haydon McElligott, Jordan Ward, Caleb Booth, Tom Jolly and Solomon Baldock represented the Southern udner-18 team at the regional NZ tournament in Palmerston North and Ethan Booth and Zac Mason played for Southern under-18 at the association tournament held in Invercargill.
Roxburgh Area School
New Zealand Area Schools: A dozen pupils and three staff travelled to Dunedin in the first week of the holidays to join 300 others from around the country to compete in the New Zealand Area School Annual Tournament.
They had a very busy week with most playing two to three sports. Congratulations to Daniel Arnesen, who won the golf with Jesse Orchard third. Congratulations to the following who were selected for South Island teams:
Ashlyn Reid: netball A/volleyball; Jonty Mc Kinnel: rugby, Caileigh Forbes: netball B, Jordan Dance: football, Erin Vernon: netball A, Brooke Johnston: netball A/basketball, Ethan Kitto: Ki O Rahi, Shanae Forbes: Ki O Rahi/netball B.
The following were selected in the New Zealand teams:
Ashlyn Reid: netball; Jonty Mc Kinnel: rugby (captain). The New Zealand Area School Barbarians team will play in Hamilton on September 3. Jordan Dance: football; Daniel Arnesen: golf.
Congratulations to Haidyn Pringle on his outstanding efforts at the South Island Secondary Schools Swimming Championships during the holidays. He reached the finals in all his events and placed fourth in the 50m butterfly, fifth in the 100m butterfly, eighth in the 100m freestyle and fourth in the 100m backstroke.
The rest of the term will be busy with the school cross-country, SISS netball, Central Otago volleyball, ski trips and Get to Go.
Taieri College
In the first week of the holidays, the year 9 and 10 netball teams took part in the South Island junior netball tournament in Christchurch. Both teams performed well. At the end of the week, three of the junior mini ball teams played in the network Waitaki Basketball teams.
In this tournament the teams played against both other schools and regional representative teams. The teams from both codes are grateful for the support of coaches and managers who gave up holidays to help them at these tournaments.
Week one of this term started with an incredible performance by the Senior A netball team, who won promotion in the premier A grade of the Dunedin Club netball competition. This young team is building strongly as it heads towards the South Island Secondary School tournament later in the season.
On Thursday, the annual Taieri year 6 tournament was contested between Silverstream, Elmgrove, East Taieri and Big Rock across five sports. It is a true celebration of primary sports with good sportsmanship and sporting talent. The day was won by Silverstream School.
John McGlashan College
Secondary school winter sport has reached finals time. The 1st XV has qualified top in the Southern Wide competition, unbeaten. Senior and junior hockey, basketball and football sides have also qualified for semifinals.
Boxer Alex Hanan won his third national title when competing in the New Zealand Championships. Alex beat a former champion and an undefeated fighter to claim the middleweight title. Maarten De Ridder competed at the NZSS Judo Championships and won all his fights in his weight class to achieve the gold medal.
Rory Ferguson has signed a contract with the Brisbane Broncos League team where he will start at the end of the school year. After gaining a bronze medal at the NZ Karate championships, Riley Hall will represent New Zealand in September at the WKF Oceania Championships.
At the recent SISS Swimming championships McGlashan boys showed their strength gaining five gold, seven silver and six bronze medals. The gold medalists were Geoffrey Kemp (three), Ben Carr and Luke Nie (one each).
The Sport Council held another successful sports dinner where old boy and ``southern man'' Brian Dagg spoke about conquering Everest. The council's next project is a golf tournament on September 22.
The school is very proud of three JMC old boys, Hugo Inglis (hockey) Tony Dodds (triathlon) and Clarke Johnstone (equestrian), who will be competing at the Rio Olympics.
Otago Girls' High School
The following six year 11 students have been selected for the final trial for the South Island under-17 volleyball team to compete in the Australian Junior Champs: Hannah King, Hannah Moore, Jenna Thorne, Leimanu Hotesi, Ella Rooney and Ruby Timmins.
The following students were selected for Basketball Otago age group teams: under-15: Zanthe Herbert, Dana Ballantyne, Talei Pelasio, Hannah Matehaere, and under-17: Meg Ballantyne and Rebecca Paterson.
The following pupils were selected for the Dunedin Netball Centre squads: under-14: Dana Ballantyne, Zanthe Herbert, Sophie Miller, Talei Pelasio and Elora Peters;under-17: Holly Paterson and under-19: Kiana Pelasio.
Alaina Baker competed at the New Zealand Schools' Judo Championships in Tauranga. She won all the fights in her weight class and was awarded the gold medal.
Sophie Wilson (U16 team) and Hayley Smith (Wellington combined) competed at the water polo Pan Pacific Championships recently.
Erin Ford gained second place in the 100m and 200m backstroke events at the South Island secondary schools' swimming championships in Invercargill and during the school holidays Caitlin O'Donnell became the Otago under-15 girls cross country champion.
At the South Island Secondary Schools junior development tournament, held in July, the Year 9A team h finished in a very commendable fifth place.
The team of sailing girls - Isobel Sanderson, Fern Stoddart, Sarah Willers, Renee Mullins and Keala Hancock and their dedicated teacher-in-charge of sailing Hilary Sutherland - have just returned from competing in an exclusive sailing regatta in Rarotonga.
St Hilda's Collegiate School
Seven St Hilda's athletes travelled to Rotorua in June to compete in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross-country Championships. Harriet Cottle finished mid-field in the year 9 Race over 3km.
Olivia Gold, Suzie White, Kate Higham, Georgia Mitchell, Cecilia Crooks and Sophie Sinclair placed third in the six-person team race over 4km. Kate, Cecilia and Georgia also received bronze as a three-person team.
The St Hilda's 9A and 10A teams travelled to Christchurch in the holidays to compete at the South Island Secondary Schools' junior netball championships. The 10As progressed to the final, where they lost 26-25 to Southland Girls'.
The power of social media drew support from all over the world for the final between the St Hilda's and Columba teams in the Otago Secondary School girls rugby competition.
St Hilda's had an impressive 25-15 win.
The team went on to compete at the South Island Secondary Schools rugby tournament in Oamaru during the holidays, finishing in third place.
A seven-person strong team of swimmers from St Hilda's competed at the South Island secondary schools swimming championships in Invercargill on July 9, securing some gold, silver and bronze medals for individuals; silver in the 200m freestyle relay, bronze in the 200m medley relay, and taking the title of Top South Island School for overall points.
Nicole Ruske, of St Hilda's, has been named in the Junior Tall Ferns squad again to play in the team's home series against China under-19 in September.
East Otago High School
This year, East Otago High School has only one hockey team, which is made up from students from years 8-13. This mixed team is playing in the secondary schools boys competition as there is no mixed grade.
It is a very difficult job to get 16 players across six year levels to work as a team, and Ryan Scurr, the team captain, is doing a fantastic job at encouraging the new and younger players and getting the team to work well together.
With guidance from their two coaches, Mr Ford and Ms Meyer, the team has grown from the skills and drills of their early morning practices. They are extremely proud of the progress the team has made, as it is third in division three. The coaches are looking forward to taking a team to the South Island tournament in Gore later in the term.
At the end of last term, Cromwell College called in on its way back from a tournament with its senior netball and rugby teams. EOHS played a 10-a-side rugby game, which was evenly contested until halfway through the second half, when Cromwell ran away with a very convincing win.
The netball scores were even until the very end when Cromwell got a turnover which EOHS could not recover from, meaning Cromwell won the game. This was a great opportunity to give the team some outdoor competition before it heads to Nelson for the SISS tournament later in August
Dunstan High School
Dunstan recently hosted Central Southland College in the annual sports exchange and was keen to hold on to the interschool trophy for another year.
It started with close games in senior A boys and girls basketball with Dunstan losing 55-53 and 50-43 respectively.
The following day the school got off to a good start with a 6-0 win in girls football and a 4-0 win in mixed hockey. The senior B netballers lost 35-17, as did the clay target team, 2-1, and the boys footballers, 3-1.
The girls rugby teams could not be separated and at the end of an intense match the scores were tied 20-20. The penultimate game saw the senior A netballers in a tight tussle, with Dunstan winning the fixture for the first time in many years 36-34.
Finally the 1st XV was involved in a tough match. After a good start the team fell away towards the end, going down 37-10. The overall score was a 6-3 win to Central Southland.
