School sport: Majority of pupils play sport

Otago Boys’ High School pupils Ayoub Ahmad (left, 13) and Michael Ruske (13) get set to play on...
Otago Boys’ High School pupils Ayoub Ahmad (left, 13) and Michael Ruske (13) get set to play on the school’s newly refurbished tennis courts for the first time yesterday. The project started at the beginning of last year and cost the best part of $200...

In an age of gaming consoles, tablets and smartphones, it turns out Otago secondary school pupils still enjoy sport.

Figures from last year's New Zealand secondary schools census show 68% of Otago secondary school pupils played at least one sport last year.

Only Wairarapa (70%) boasted a better participation rate, while Otago's neighbour Aoraki also fared well, with a 67% turnout.

At the other end of the scale, Auckland-Waitakere lagged well behind with just 40% of its pupils involved in sport.

The national average for the past two years was 54%.

"We do bloody well,'' Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association regional sports director Nicki Patterson said.

"It's a real combination of good people working in the schools ... providing them opportunities to play. Good parents, there is all sorts of reasons why.''

It was the third consecutive year Otago had the second-best participation rate behind Wairarapa, and its 68% rate was the same as 2014.

Otago girls have a slightly better rate (69%) than the region's boys (68%), which has always been the case, Patterson said.

"That bucks the trend across the country. I'm not sure why, maybe because in Dunedin there are four girls' schools ... That's my feeling,'' Patterson said.

The country's secondary schools sports associations gauge numbers by "involvements'', which requires a pupil to be involved in a sports competition for at least six weeks to register.

Last year, Otago boys accounted for 7441 involvements, while girls had 7273.

Both were well up from the previous year, when boys had 6489 and girls 7061.

It was the third straight year with an increase.

"It could be the same amount of kids playing more sport, which makes sense, because there are more sports offered,'' Patterson said.

Netball (1687), basketball (1514) and rugby (1401) were the most popular sports.

But while participation numbers were good, there was a decline in the number of Otago teachers coaching sport.

There was a 3% drop to 23% last year, while the national average also dropped a percent to 19%.

"That's where we have a concern, because that's going down,'' Patterson said.

"What I'm told anecdotally, the teaching age is getting older, they've done their time. Our world has changed, so weekends are really important to people.''

However, Patterson said it was an "amazing'' report overall and the focus was now on maintaining, or better still, increasing its figures.

 


 

Participation numbers
for Otago secondary school pupils

Netball: 1685 girls, 2 boys
Basketball: 815 boys, 699 girls
Rugby: 1191 boys, 210 girls
Volleyball: 759 girls, 265 boys
Football: 672 boys, 289 girls
Futsal: 563 boys, 332 girls
Hockey: 413 boys, 306 girls
Athletics: 338 boys, 270 girls.


 

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