Queen’s High School
Meagan Stanley-Brown
Role: HOD Mathematics, teacher in charge of touch, softball and rugby.
While many know Meagan Stanley-Brown as the head of mathematics at Queen’s, her impact extends far beyond the classroom. As teacher in charge of touch, rugby and softball, Meagan dedicates countless hours to ensuring students have opportunities to participate, compete and succeed.
Her motivation is simple: “I do it all for the girls. I want the students to experience the things they are passionate about.”
Meagan’s involvement across both academic and extracurricular areas allows her to build strong relationships with students.
“I know the students both in class and through all their extracurricular activities,” she said.
These connections enable her to support students in many aspects of school life, helping them to grow in confidence, develop their talents and feel a sense of belonging. Through the many hours she gives and the opportunities she creates, Meagan is a truly deserving unsung hero.
Trinity Catholic College
Hamish Sutherland
Role: Director of religious studies, year 13 pastoral teacher, coach for volleyball, netball and rugby.
Sport is a vehicle for developing skills for life. Yes, the micro skills within each specific sport are important, but the skills for life that our young people learn through sports are the most important.
Commitment to the team and turning up with a positive mindset. Learning to see failure as a stepping stone to success not a final judgement on who we are. Developing the ability to respond to feedback as a teaching tool and not a judgement on a young person’s self worth.
All the teams that I work with have winning as an aspirational goal. However, we can still have wins within a game, even if the win is not on the scoreboard.
As a teacher, sport enables my relationships with the students I teach to be more authentic. Young people have an extremely deep sense of gratitude for their coaches, even if they don’t say it every day. When they see you turning up for them, they turn up for you in the classroom.
The sense of trust that can be built between a coach, a player and their whānau supports their journey through school. Supporting our young people to develop skills for life to enable them to be great humans in their world at the end of the school journey.
Logan Park High School teacher Maddy Campbell gets a buzz out of seeing her volleyballers develop.
Logan Park High School
Maddy Campbell
Role: Volleyball coach.
As a teacher, I have the ability to make an impact in young people’s lives each day by being there for them as a mentor, someone they can talk to, and someone who can help guide them while teaching knowledge and life skills they can carry forward.
Coaching allows me to make even more of an impact in my students’ lives. I coach because I am able to connect with students and understand what makes them tick outside the classroom.
Sport builds interpersonal skills students can take with them and use across different areas of their life. It helps them become better leaders at school, in the classroom and within their wider communities. It also builds greater trust between myself and students within the school environment.
This aligns with part of my philosophy. I believe it is so important that students leave school with the ability to be highly functioning members of society, and I see sport as one of the most powerful tools to help shape that.
I am a strong believer that if you put in the hard mahi, you can truly achieve anything. But to get there, you need a village, people who will support you, challenge you, guide you, and believe in you when things get tough.
I want to be that role model for my students. The greatest joy for me is seeing them master a skill or achieve a goal they never thought possible. Volleyball may seem like just a sport to some people, but it has been completely life-changing for me. The best feeling is seeing students fall in love with the sport and continue to play simply for the fun, connection, and enjoyment of it all, while growing into confident, resilient young people along the way.
Blue Mountain College netball coach Kirsten McIntyre.
Blue Mountain College
Kirsten McIntyre
Role: Coach of year 9-10 development netball team.
I have been coaching this team since 2020. I love to watch the players develop their skills and improve and reach their goals of being in the senior A team.
Taking them to tournaments is always an excellent time. You get to know the players on a new level and create lifelong memories for them. It’s about watching them grow as players and people.
Columba College
Angela Bishop
Role: Coach and teacher in charge of badminton.
The students keep me coming back — their effort, fun, improvement and enthusiasm. I always had keen coaches when I was younger, in which a lot were using their own time. So I feel I should give back and I enjoy keeping up my own skills (sometimes very humbling since I haven’t actually trained/played competitively since 2011).
Trips are always really fun and a chance for our students to compete against students who have been playing for longer and with more frequent competition. We have students who have badminton as their main sport, so when we go to a tournament they can fill me in on who we are playing, as well as socialising with the other teams.
Because we only ever lose 1-2 students from the top team each year, it is often seeing each student’s progress and wanting to follow them through to continue to be part of their journey.
Maniototo Area School’s Jude McMillan.
Maniototo Area School
Jude McMillan
Role: Executive officer.
Behind every team on the field is an incredible support system, and Jude McMillan is just that for our school. As school finance officer, our busy sports calendar makes her job just that little bit more busy, but her lifelong love for sport and dedication to our students keeps her motivated.
Having seen her own children enjoy the sporting opportunities at Maniototo Area School, Jude ensures today’s students get the same great experiences.
Erica Milligan, from Tokomairiro High School.
Tokomairiro High School
Erica Milligan
Role: Head of sport and PE, coach of senior A netball and touch teams.
Being head of sport at Tokomairiro allows me to work closely with our sports co-ordinator to organise our school-wide events each year and also help students get into teams of different sporting codes.
I coach netball and touch teams currently. I love helping students get involved in sports and see the positive impact it has on their wellbeing. I love promoting our school through the sports lens and seeing our students exceed in their sporting codes.
Being involved with sports at Tokomairiro has helped me to build community connections and develop positive relationships with the students and their families. Volunteering is a big part of who I am and I love being involved and giving back to the school community.
Otago Boys’ High School
Jacob Brown
Role: Teacher in charge and coach of squash.
Being able to be the person that co-ordinates squash is huge for me. I am a current squash player, so it only made sense for me to dive right in and try to build more awareness of the game and expose it to any boys willing to try the sport.
My goal is to build more of a junior presence by getting more boys interested and developing their game to aspire to work up the ranks as well as getting an overall workout and meeting new players along the way.
I want to be able to pass on my knowledge of the game to any boys willing to try it and hopefully get them hooked like I am to the enjoyment of the game and building its status slowly but surely around Otago.
