These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association (OSSSA), which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.
Dunstan High School
The school sent a group of pupils to the South Island secondary schools mountain biking championships in Dunedin over the school holidays. In difficult conditions, the team achieved some success, with a number of pupils placing in their respective events.
Looking ahead, many of the school's summer codes are under way. The local cricket competition has started with three teams entered.
Similarly, the school has three teams competing in the softball competition. Dunstan's athletics squad has been training for a number of weeks for the upcoming season and a small squad will be heading to nationals in December. Likewise, the rowing team is well into its training and will be looking to build on the success of last year.
The school had a junior touch team entered in the recent Central Otago secondary schools tournament, where it made it through to the final in its grade.
Finally, Dunstan's sports awards were held in the first week of term four. It was a fantastic occasion and a chance to acknowledge the pupils' and teams' sporting achievements, along with the opportunity to thank the many volunteers who are so vital to the continued success of sport within the school.
John McGlashan College
The McGlashan First XI pre-season trip to Melbourne paid dividends in their first week back in the country. The team won the McCullum Cup for the first time, breaking the dominance of Otago Boys' High School.
The curling team of Bailey Dowling, Tom Johnston, Will Turner and Jack Hutton-Atkins won gold at the national curling championships in Auckland recently.
Zach White won bronze in the under-16 national downhill mountain bike event in Dunedin. Henry Bell and Leroy Ferguson were recognised at the Otago Rugby Football Union prizegiving. Both boys captained the Otago metropolitan under-18 and under-16 teams to South Island victories and then went on to win the MVP for their respective teams. John McGlashan was well represented throughout the grades.
A total of 17 winter Blues were awarded in 10 different codes at a special assembly in week two of term four.
Ben Lund was part of the Otago under-15 football side, which won the South Island tournament for the fifth year in a row.
Sailor Freddy Wright competed in the Asian and Oceania IODA regatta in Hong Kong. He finished 15th in the silver fleet.
King's High School
The King's sporting year culminated with the annual sports awards evening, where new Highlanders head coach Aaron Mauger entertained as guest speaker.
During the evening, the two top awards for sporting excellence were presented.
The best individual year 13 sportsman receives the Salter Trophy and this year the recipient was outstanding swimmer Tame Govaerts. Tame was successful from among the seven national representative nominees for this award.
The team of the year award went to the King's senior A relay team for its performances in the past 12 months. It won numerous Otago and South Island titles, and defended its national title in the NZSSSA 4x400m event and achieved silver in the 4x100m relay.
Term four is a particularly busy time in the school calendar and the sporting arena is no exception. Amid study, examinations, prizegivings and farewells, sporting endeavours continue to take place,
With the school year drawing to a close, the school can reflect on many wonderful individual and team performances across a wide variety of sports during the past 12 months. Good luck to the athletes and touch players for their upcoming NZSS events in early December in Napier and Auckland respectively.
Sincere thanks go to all those who make themselves available to support King's High School sport. Parents, coaches, referees, managers, administrators and all who contribute time and energy to enable teams to take the field, the school sincerely appreciates your time and generosity.
Logan Park High School
The school has three handball teams in the secondary school competition. The senior mixed A team is playing well, drawing against King's A and winning against King's B so far.
Zoe Degas, Laura Graham and Jemma Wong play for the Otago under-19 women's handball team, which beat Canterbury under-19 women last weekend.
Joe McKee and Daniel Cowles play for the Otago under-19 men's handball team. Thanks to OSSSA and Otago Handball for their support with handball.
A highlight on the year's calendar is the sporting and cultural Blues awards. A number of senior pupils received sporting Blues and the following students earned premier sporting Blues for their outstanding performance at regional or national level: Ben Dubyk (football/futsal), Jacob Duffy (athletics), Alice McNoe (orienteering), Hamish McKinlay (harriers) and Mane Marshall (boxing).
Summer sports are well under way. Our futsal teams are doing well, including six junior teams.
The touch team is in the top mixed division and, with some excellent coaching, is performing well.
Recently, five pupils travelled to Invercargill for kendo grading. In conjunction with Otago Kendo, we offer a school kendo club. In kendo, before reaching dan or ''black belt'' grade, students are awarded kyu grades from seventh to first.
Preparations for the South Island secondary school junior volleyball championships in Christchurch later this month are going well with the girls playing two games a week.
A variety of teams are preparing for the junior sports tournament in mid-November. They will have three handball teams, five dodgeball teams and three volleyball teams, as well as water polo and touch teams.
Otago Girls' High School
Lucy Matehaere recently competed at the South Island secondary schools kayaking regatta. She came first in the under-18 K1 200m, 500m and 5km and was the South Island secondary school under-18 girls champion.
She was also second in the open K1 500m, first in the open K2 500m and second in the high school relay (combined with Otago Boys').
Madison Dougherty attended the national Halberg Junior Disability Games in Auckland and was first in the 100m athletics race.
Rebekah Wairau and Jade Middleditch came second in the Otago secondary schools' petanque tournament and Madison Campbell and Meg Ballantyne came third.
Madison Wills competed at the NZ Short Course Swimming Championships in Auckland and won silver in the 200m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m breaststroke.
Carina Donegan, Lucy Matehaere, Charlotte Underwood and Catie Mason competed in the 48th annual White Island Race and Lucy won the female surf ski race.
Roxburgh Area School
The junior touch team competed in the Central Otago tournament in Cromwell and was runner-up in the B grade mixed competition. The team received many compliments from coaches and opposition supporters, praising outstanding sportsmanship and general friendliness and demonstrating our school values of RiPPeR. The team is now preparing for the junior tournament week in Dunedin, along with the dodgeball and volleyball teams.
The school also has a touch team competing in a competition in Alexandra and it has won both games so far.
Summer sports competitions are also going on during lunchtimes to determine winners of badminton, tennis and table tennis. Pupils had a North v South mixed netball game, which North won. The social netball and touch tournament will be on Friday.
Teviot Valley Pony Club has been competing in Cromwell at the Central Otago showjumping championships and pupils from the school are involved.
St Hilda's Collegiate
St Hilda's had two teams competing at national secondary school events over the past holidays. The senior A basketball team competed at the NZSS basketball championships in Palmerston North and the senior A netball team competed at the NZSS netball championships in Rotorua. The basketballers had a big week, playing more than seven games in almost as many days. The defending champions were in their pool and they came within three points of beating them. The girls played some fantastic basketball, finishing 10th overall out of 24 teams, an outstanding effort against the best in the country.
Netball nationals then took place the following week, and with eight games condensed into four days it made for a very intense but exciting few days of netball. The team made it through pool play in second place, cementing its spot in the top eight, and eventually finished eighth out of 16 teams, three spots better than last year.
A number of girls have also been doing extremely well in their own sports. Well done to the following girls on their achievements:
Phoebe Aburn competed in the annual St Clair Surf Life Saving Club White Island race over Labour Weekend and came first in the under-19 board race and was the second female overall.
Olivia O'Neill has been called into the Women's Touch Blacks squad in preparation for the transtasman championships in 2018.
Josie Cook and Gabby Hunter have been selected to row in an Otago University quad competing in Guangzhou and Wuhan, in China, next month.
Taieri College
Rory Findlay has been selected for the NZ secondary schools soccer under-18 squad to tour the United States in April 2018.
At the Blues awards, Hamish Mears and Kaylee Bezett were named sportsman and sportswoman of the year.
Hamish competes in discus and shot put and has been successful in his own age group, under-18, under-19 and senior, both at club and secondary school level.
Hamish attended the New Zealand secondary schools athletics nationals in Auckland, in which he placed second in the junior boys discus and fifth in the junior boys shot put. He also was selected to represent New Zealand in the Oceania Championships in Suva, Fiji. After injuring his ankle at the start of the first event, he went on throw a personal best and finish third in the under-18 shot put and third in the under-18 discus.
Kaylee is an all-round sportswoman competing to a high level across three codes: netball, volleyball and basketball. This year, she played her 100th game for the Taieri College senior A netball team.
In May, Kaylee was named in the Otago under-20 A volleyball team, which travelled to Wellington and placed fifth in the interprovincial tournament.
Soon after finishing volleyball, Kaylee was named in the Otago under-23 women's basketball team and travelled to Porirua to play in the national championship. The team easily beat Canterbury by 20 points to place third overall.
