A skilful Otago Girls High School team outplayed all opposition to claim the under-19 title at the national futsal championships in Queenstown.
Briony Barclay, who was captain of the New Zealand Schools team in Brisbane in the October holidays, led her team by example and was ably supported by talented younger players Sam Muirhead, Daytona Helm and Grace Van Turnhout.
Defender Morgan Dalzel and goalie Alyssa Gray added to the classy side, which beat Burnside 4-1 in the final.
Briony has been selected for the Australasian Under-19 side to tour China early next year.
The win in the final was dedicated to football player and school friend Sam Hall, who died of cancer earlier in the year.
Otago Boys High School's under-14 team also won a national title in Queenstown.
Cam Howieson was outstanding throughout the tournament, cleaning up at the back and initiating many drives forward. He also led the scoring (14 goals). Cam was well complemented by Joel Stevens, who collected a number of goals and produced many turnovers with a tremendous work rate.
Lian Lam Sam grew throughout the competition and ended equal with Cam as leading goal-scorer on 14 goals. A big target, he was a headache for opposition defence.
Ryan McGarry was solid at the back and was supported by two able keepers (Tom Stevens and Tyrrell Barringer-Tairi) while Sam Brouwer played well off the bench, and was effective at the back.
Logan Park High School entered four teams in the tournament, with the talented under-19 boys unlucky not to get to the final.
They won their quarterfinal in an exciting game against an impressive St Bedes, 2-1, but because they lost an earlier game against Linwood College by one goal (when they had a flat morning game), they were not able to progress. Linwood went on to win the title and LPHS boys were third.
In the senior boys team, Logan Park had the following players: Seamus Gray, Konyo Yoon, Michael Still (all South Island or NZ Youth representatives), Amos Rouse, Adam Harris, Tom Kenny, Moyad Barnawi and Billy Pullar. David Rucker had been their coach.
The Logan Park intermediate under-16 team improved rapidly, beating Christchurch Boys 4-0 and reaching the quarterfinals.
Cricket
Kylie Crowley, a very promising cricketer, has been selected for the Kavanagh College boys First XI. This is an excellent achievement at this level.
Kylie is a current member of the Otago Sparks team and has been a member of most Otago age group teams. She played her first game last Saturday and helped the team to a good total of 227 and was impressive in the field.
Kings students excel
Kings High School has recently seen four of its pupils attain the lofty heights of the upper echelons of secondary school sport.
Josh Lamb, a year 11 student, won the under-45kg title at the national taekwondo championships in Auckland, while yachtsmen Daniel Meehan and Robere Hall have been selected to go to the Sydney International Regatta in early December to compete in the 29ers skiff class.
Chris Stevens received Squash Otago's trophy for the most improved male player by moving from a D2 grade to a C1. This progress is quite rare within one season.
Dunstan performs well
During the holidays the Dunstan senior boys basketball team travelled to New Plymouth to play in the national A tournament (for smaller schools) after winning the South Island tournament in Timaru last term.
It was a huge effort to get organised and fundraise in three weeks and a great team of parents swung into action with the school's sports co-ordinator to make this happen.
The boys had four days of competition with the following results: beat Michael Park School 70-53, lost to Taumarunui High School 94-88, lost to Hato Paora College 64-63, beat Waitara 69-30, lost to St Pauls Collegiate 91-70, beat Buller 67-65, beat St Pauls Collegiate 73-69.
Out of 12 schools, Dunstan ended up fifth, losing by six points to tournament winner Taumaranui.
Dunstan player Thomas Mulvihill was named in the tournament team after averaging 33 points a game.
Petanque
Sarah-Jane Copeland, a year 12 pupil at South Otago High School, is a member of the Milton petanque club and has played for 12 years.
She travels from Kaitangata every Sunday to play in the club competition. Along with 11 others from around the country, Sarah-Jane has been selected in the NZ Youth team to play in the transtasman challenge tournament in Auckland on Saturday.
Sarah-Jane is excited and keen to test her skills. Her ambition is to get into the New Zealand women's team.
Sports councils in schools
It was pleasing to get positive feedback from Sparc at the regional sports directors conference on the way the regional sporting organisations, the OSSSA and Otago schools are working together to deliver sporting opportunities in the best interests of pupils.
In particular, the initiative by Sport Otago in introducing the RSO forums where the OSSSA has been invited to contribute has been a major step forward.
The forums are helping build close relationships with RSOs, Sport Otago and the region's 23 secondary schools. The advent of sports councils in schools will help build these relationships. Nine Otago schools have formed councils, consisting of teachers, students, a board member and school community people.
The sports council will initially look at revising the school's sports policy by identifying the needs within the school, which will ultimately ensure a better structure for sports delivery.
Those schools which have recently formed sports councils report positively of their impact in the school environment, leading to greater participation and more community involvement.
It is expected by the end of this year that 14 of the 23 schools in our region will have sports councils.
• Calendar of events
November 5: Logan Park road race.
November 12: Athletes with disabilities meeting, Caledonian.
> These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Assn (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
