Kaikorai Valley College recently held its sports prizegiving highlighting a number of high achieving sportspeople.
Cara Raal has been seeded 11th in New Zealand in the under-17 girls age group in squash.
She won two open tournaments this year, the Clutha Open and the North End tournament, and came second in the Southern Open. All this and she is only 15.
Adam McCutcheon came second overall in the motorcycle road racing junior cup for 2008. This was a series of three rounds in Invercargill, Timaru and Christchurch with 20 competitors.
Brittany Whelan is ranked first and second in the South Island showjumping pony Grand Prix high-point series, competing on two different ponies, and has gained sixth and eighth placings in New Zealand in the same class.
Morgan Fraser was second overall in the senior light grade KartSport New Zealand school championships.
Renee Johnson has represented New Zealand in basketball, in the Emerging Junior Tall Ferns team that travelled to Australia earlier this year.
Cameron McNoe and Ben Jowsey are New Zealand secondary schools representatives in athletics and will be away to Australia to compete at the Pacific School Games later this week.
Dylan Blackley has achieved 11th place in the New Zealand motocross championships in the 12 to 14 years 125cc class.
Also, Karl Miller was second in the South Island championships in the 13 to 16 years 85cc class.
Rodeo
Laurie Hawea (Otago Boys) competed for the New Zealand steer riding under-15 title in Urenui in March.
In a challenging event, Laurie managed to beat 35 other competitors from around New Zealand and secured the coveted Gold Buckle.
Laurie has been riding for four years and has competed in rodeos around the country.
Introduced to the sport by his stepfather Richard, Laurie has the support of his family and hopes to train hard and win the rookie title in 2009.
Laurie was awarded a Mana Pounamu award for his efforts in rodeo including his representation of New Zealand at the transtasman challenge.
He has gained this honour through consistent performance over the past two years, winning the New Zealand under-15 steer riding championships back to back.
Cricket
On December 11, Otago Boys High School will attempt to win the Gillette Cup (for the fourth time) when it plays its first game in the 2008 finals in Palmerston North.
This continues a tradition for OBHS as it has appeared in more finals (10) than any other school in the 19-year history of the tournament.
Captain George Spittle leads an experienced and talented team which won all three interschools outright in term one, and is leading the DCA second grade competition in term four.
It also had a convincing win over a Willows team in their annual fixture in Christchurch.
The Gillette Cup competition is seen as an important stepping stone towards playing first-class cricket.
One of this year's finalists, Tauranga Boys, is captained by Kane Williamson, who has a contract with Northern Districts. Kane scored 83 against the Otago Volts last week.
Hamish Rutherford, who made his debut for Otago in the same game, played for OBHS in the 2006 Gillette Cup finals.
The finals consist of New Zealand's top eight First XIs, divided into two pools.
After the first three days there are playoffs to determine the winner of the Gillette Cup.
The Otago Boys team is: George Spittle, Hayden Miller, James Ferris, Callum Wardell, Ciaran McMeeken, Tom Rutherford, Blair Soper, Matt Hunter, Daniel Duke, Liam Edwards, Harry Jones, Isaac Gutschlag.
Meanwhile, excitement is building at St Hildas Collegiate as the First XI cricket team finalises its preparation for the New Zealand secondary schoolgirls finals in Taupo next month.
This will be St Hildas' first involvement in the national finals and the added bonus of travelling to Taupo is creating a good deal of interest within the team and the wider school community.
The team, under the captaincy of Philippa Cashmere and coaching of Neil Rosenberg and Clare Taylor from Otago Cricket, is preparing as best it can.
"We are aware of the demands that such an intense competition will bring but we will relish the opportunity to pit our skills against the best other schoolgirl teams in New Zealand" Rosenberg said.
The competition starts on December 15 and runs through to December 18 under a 50-over format.
The team is made up of multi-talented players, many of whom represent the school and Otago in multiple sporting codes.
Kate Kernaghan, for example, is a member of the school's First XI hockey team, the First XI football team and the New Zealand Under-16 hockey team, and she recently competed in the national futsal competition in Queenstown where her team won the under-16 title.
The competition in Taupo is held at Owen Delany Park, the local home of Northern Districts cricket, and for many of the team it will be their first experience of grass wickets.
Special needs athletics
The Special Olympics oath - "Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt" - was very evident as 80 students from around the Otago, Southland and North Otago districts competed at the second secondary schools special needs athletics event held at the Caledonian on November 12.
Special Olympics New Zealand, Otago Secondary School Sport and Sport Otago have been the driving force behind these events, combining to offer these opportunities for our "mixed ability" pupils, giving them a chance to compete against their peers at the home of athletics in Otago.
Students ran, walked, put the shot and long-jumped to a chorus of cheers from each other and their supporters.
The training over the past month or so was very evident in the way the pupils confidently performed their individual events culminating in the relays.
Usual rivalry was put aside as three Kings High pupils and Matt Aitken, from Otago Boys, combined for a relay team resulting in a win.
Many notable achievements were on display including the efforts of Liam Smith, from Tuatapere.
At his first competition Liam achieved first, second and fourth placings.
Visually impaired South Otago pupil Matthew Rhodes also performed creditably with a win in the 50m walk and a second and third in the field events.
Krystal Cooke (Kaikorai Valley College) won the girls' 100m wheelchair race in a blistering time of 29.49sec, eclipsing the best of the male competitors' times in the process.
Special Olympics New Zealand South Island co-ordinator Dave Pryor said it was "encouraging to see that events such as this bring such joy and a real sense of achievement to these special athletes. For many it is one of the few opportunities they get to compete on a level playing field.
"Hopefully, the confidence they gain will give them the courage to experience the growing opportunities for people with disabilities in our communities, whether it be with a Special Olympics club or a mainstream club.
"The Otago community is second to none in embracing these events, which bodes well for the Special Olympics National Games being held in Dunedin in 2013 with an estimated 1800 competitors."
These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Assn Inc (OSSSA) which is proudly sponsored by the University of Otago College of Education.
Contacts: Des Smith, Otago Regional Sports director, PO Box 6303, Dunedin.
Ph 470-1337 Fax 470-1786 Email: des@osssa.org.nz Website: www.osssa.org.nz
• This is the last regular secondary sports page for 2008. On December 10, the page will review the year in secondary sport and highlight Otago's elite achievers for the year. If your school has teams or athletes you believe merit attention, email or phone Otago Daily Times sports editor Hayden Meikle on hayden.meikle@odt.co.nz or (03) 4793524.
Calendar
Today: Junior Tennis Tournament.
November 28: OSSSA function.
November 28-30: South Island junior water polo, Invercargill.
December 2: OSSSA touch competition, final day.
December 2-5: South Island junior volleyball tournament, Nelson.
December 5: OSSSA water polo, final day.
