These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.
Taieri College
After the initial madness of the winter sport rollout, teams are now down to a steady workload. Taieri College is well represented across all the sporting codes and wish all their teams a rewarding and successful season.
Cody Veenvliet recently placed first in the adult style competition at the parkour nationals at the Flow Academy in Auckland.
Cody has been doing parkour for five years and was the youngest competitor in the adult open grade.
Hamish Mears has just returned from California as part of a track and field tour. He applied for this opportunity and met all the criteria to join the team. He was one of six athletes who went on the tour.
They attended three athletic meets, two at high school level and one at university level. Hamish had to throw with different weights than he uses in New Zealand but adapted very well and posted some good distances.
Rory Findlay has also just returned from the US where he was selected to play in the NZSS under-19 representative football team.
Rory was named team vice-captain. The team played two games in Los Angeles for one loss and a draw, before going on to San Jose for four more games. The side won two of these games. His highlights were playing football and learning new styles of play.
Congratulations to Emma Cramond who was selected in the Otago under-20 women's volleyball team to go to inter-provincial championships in Wellington at Queen's Birthday Weekend.
Dunstan High School
Winter sports teams are now into the start of their season. Each of the school's major sports are well represented this year with five rugby teams, 10 netball teams, seven senior basketball teams and four hockey teams competing in various competitions throughout the region.
In addition, the boys and girls first XI football teams will be holding trials later in the term to select the teams that will compete in the school's sports exchange and tournament week later in the year. The clay target team is also under way, with a few new junior shooters, and have already competed in one shoot this season.
East Otago High School
The school started term two competing in a sports exchange with Tokomairiro High School at the Edgar Centre this month.
There were 69 students from year 7-13 competing in futsal, netball, basketball and touch. Tokomairiro took the overall win. It is always great to see the schools come together and enjoy competing against each other.
Winter sports are well under way, with three senior basketball teams, two senior netball teams, and a senior mixed hockey team travelling through to the Dunedin competitions.
The school has started a Kiwihoops competition for the intermediate school at East Otago School, consisting of four teams, and with with the first games played last Monday.
Congratulations to Kari Crouch, who placed third in the 200m individual medley at the Otago Swim Champs over the weekend, also breaking the school record.
John McGlashan College
McGlashan has seven rugby, 23 basketball, five football and seven hockey teams. The senior hockey side enjoyed a great pre-season by touring Argentina. The First XV kicked its season off with a last-minute win over King's High School at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
McGlashan has two sports exchanges this winter, the annual one against St Andrew's College, and now - new to the calendar - against Timaru Boys' High School.
The annual sports dinner will be on the last Thursday of the term.
Oliver Walker qualified for the national age group swimming championships recently and performed well with a fifth in the 50m butterfly, sixth in the 100m butterfly and seventh in the 200m butterfly.
Lachlin Ellis is a taekwondo New Zealand representative and has just competed in the South Island Championships. He gained two gold medals, one in the male junior dan sparring and one in the pre-arranged sparring. Lachlin also picked up a silver in the male junior specialty.
Noah Coutts has been named in the New Zealand under-18 equestrian team. He will travel to Germany and Russia in July and August.
Kaikorai Valley College
The KVC rugby open day was held on the school grounds on Saturday with a junior under-13 Zingari team playing Alhambra Union under-13, followed by the KVC under-14 team playing South Otago under-14, and finishing with KVC Colts playing Wakatipu Colts. It was a great day, with the school community and visitors enjoying the good weather, a continuous sausage sizzle and non-stop rugby.
Lachlan Colquhoun was selected for the OSS handball team which travelled to Christchurch this weekend to compete in a South Island junior championships.
The Canterbury Open Judo tournament was held in Christchurch last weekend. Tessa Brownlie won a gold medal in the cadets opens (all weights), a bronze in the junior women under-63kg and a bronze in the cadets under-63kg.
Seth Moore gained a silver in the senior boys open and Charlie de Woeps gained a gold in his weight category and just missed out on bronze in the open grade.
Kasib Murdoch won gold in the Canterbury Boxing Champs in April. He has moved up a division and fights in the youth male 60kg division.
Kasib is away in Samoa for the Youth Oceania Boxing Training Camp. After the camp he will fight at the OCBC Youth Continental Championships. This is the last qualifiers for the Youth Olympics, which will be held later this year in Buenos Aires.
King's High School
A busy start to term two with winter sport now in full swing and King's teams competing across all winter codes. They have already contested two of their annual winter interschools, both hosted by King's in the last two weeks.
Waitaki Boys' High was first up, with great competition taking place across all events, where King's came out on top 11-5. King's recorded some very good results winning first XV, second XV, under-15 and under-14 rugby games. Senior and junior football also won 10-0 and 8-0 respectively. The First XI hockey team recorded a win against Waitaki and the smallbore shooting team had a resounding win 940-882.
Last week the Otago Boys' High School fixtures were held and again these were keenly contested fixtures, with OBHS winning overall 13-8. The First XI football game had added spice to their fixture as it also doubled as a NZSSF qualifier, King's winning a tight game 2-0. The King's hockey First XI won 4-0.
The smallbore shooting team also had a good win 755-724, while the junior debating team also tasted success. The rugby games went OBHS in the under-15 and second XV with the under-14 Panthers winning and the First XV losing to OBHS First XV 20-9. The interschool was completed on Wednesday, with the Caversham Relay being held at School, with senior boys recording a win to King's and juniors going to OBHS.
Logan Park High School
Congratulations to Ziggi Kaitai-Martin who won two national parkour titles at the New Zealand parkour competition in May. He won the youth style as well as best youth trick.
The school cross country saw some strong performances.
The girls winners were: under-14: Viviane Dalphin; under-15: Rebecca Dalphin; under-16: Mae Rose-Wills; open: Abby Barton.
Boys winners: under-14: Nico Alvarez; under-15: Milo Long; under-16: Daniel Cowles; open: Louis Freeman.
Congratulations to Joe McKee who attended the trial for the New Zealand under-19 handball team in April. This is an impressive achievement as he has only been playing for six months.
In basketball, both boys and girls A teams have had good wins in their first games of the season.
The girls football teams have also recorded good wins in their first games.
The boys First XI is back in the premier grade and is looking forward to doing well in the winter tournament later this season.
The school sports census report recorded an increase in hockey, girls football and badminton as well as curling in 2017. Overall participation in sport is at 66%, which is well above the national average of 53%.
It was pleasing to see an increase in girls participation. Thanks to all the coaches, parents, teachers and sporting community for all their support.
Congratulations to Sam Hulbe Pulver and Ben Devereux who have been selected for the Southern United Football Academy.
Otago Girls' High School
Otago Girls' have been the dominant teams in the first two races of the local cross country series. In the Logan Park road race Rebekah Hill won the senior race, while in the junior race Jordan Evans-Tobata came second and Becky De La Harpe came third.
At the recent Caversham Harriers relay the junior and senior OGHS cross country teams won their sections. Rebekah Hill was the fastest senior girl runner.
The talented Lucy Matehaere has been selected to represent New Zealand at the ICF Canoe Sprint Junior and under-23 world championships in Bulgaria in July. She has just returned from the Asia Pacific Sprint Cup for canoeing where she won gold in the K4 200, silver in K4 500, was individually 4th in K1 500 and 7th in the K1 200.
Petra McNutt-Milne in Year 10 has been selected for the New Zealand under-16 AFL team, while Jenna Thorne has been selected for the New Zealand under-19 volleyball team to travel to Vietnam. Hannah Moore has also been selected as the non-travelling reserve for this team. Hannah Moore and Taylor Thorne have also been named in the New Zealand under-19 volleyball development team.
At the national age group swimming championships in Auckland, Madison Wills was first in the 200m breaststroke, second in the 100m breaststroke, and second in the 400m individual medley. She has been selected to represent New Zealand in her age group at the Australian State Swimming Championships.
Molly Newell was one of 26 juniors who represented Otago in April in a Southern Shield table tennis clash in Invercargill.
Roxburgh Area School
A team of 30 attended the annual Southern Area School Tournament in Tuatapere last week. Roxburgh was very successful, winning the boys and girls touch, boys basketball, rugby, netball, quiz, and ultimate frisbee. Other teams were second for boys and girls volleyball and third in badminton, girls basketball and squash.
The following have been selected to attend the New Zealand Area School Tournament in Christchurch in July: Tiaan McKinnel, Vicki Booth-Elliot, Shanae Forbes, Daniel Arnesen, Jesse Orchard, Josh Reid, Caitlyn Johnston, Steve Black, Dion Muir, Ethan Kitto and McKenzie Prew.
The basketball team will start games this week at Lawrence. Haidyn Pringle has competed in the Otago Secondary School Swimming Championship.
St Hilda's Collegiate
It is great to see so many girls involved in winter sport. It has been a busy start to term two for all the girls and coaches alike with over 60 teams spread across netball, basketball, football, hockey, rugby, curling and badminton, with a majority of teams now having played one or two rounds in their respective competitions. The school is looking forward to seeing how all the teams progress throughout the season.
Olivia O'Neill played against Australia for the New Zealand women's Touch Blacks in the recent school holidays. Olivia had a fantastic debut and is now looking ahead to the 2019 World Cup.
The senior 1 cross-country relay team placed second at the Caversham Harriers relay running race last Wednesday. Cecilia Crooks also placed a very fast second place at the individual road race at Logan Park earlier in the month.
Ella Rose Crooks had a great day at the Otago Primary School Swimming Champs at the end of term one. Ella won the 12yr-old-girls 50m freestyle, 50m breaststroke and was second in the 50m backstroke. She also recorded five personal-bests throughout the meet.
