Our Sporting performance during Tournament Week

Whanganui High School's performance during Tournament Week.

Badminton:
2 Teams of boys and 1 teams of girls competed in the national secondary school badminton tournament in Hamilton. The boys 1st team finished 4th, beating Hutt International, Waitaki College, Bethlehem College and Palmerston North' Boys II. The Boys 2nd team finished 14th in their division, unfortunately losing all of their games.

The girls team beat Cambridge High School and Bethlehem College to finish 6th in their division.

Both the boys and the girls 1st teams finished the tournament ranked 10th in NZ. Thank you to Grant Hardy Coach and Andrew Lock Manager for your time with our students.

Junior Girls Basketball:
The Junior Girls Basketball team went to New Plymouth and finished 5^th in their competition. The team worked hard each game and came out with some great scores throughout the week. Sophie Andrews, Maia Ramis and Kara Adrole had strong games with scoring high points, rebounds, steals and blocks throughout the tournament. A big thank you to our Coach Marie Joseph and Manager Lisa Martin.

Junior Boys Basketball:
The Whanganui High School Junior Boys Basketball team travelled north to New Plymouth to compete in the regional secondary school’s tournament. The team were put in a very difficult pool having to play their first two game of the tournament against 2 of the top teams Palmerston North Boys High and St Pats. Losing both these opening game s sent the boys into low seeding quarter and semi-final games which they unfortunately lost. The boys played their hearts out but unfortunately came across teams that were a lot bigger and stronger. By the end of the tournament we were playing with no subs as we suffered a few injuries. The boys had a great time, played some really good basketball, and gained some valuable experience from this tournament. They ended up getting 14^th overall. A huge thank you to Coach Ross Cronshaw who has dedicated a lot of time and effort into this team. He is an outstanding coach with a wealth of knowledge.

Senior Boys Basketball:
The Whanganui High School Senior Boys Basketball team travelled to Palmerston North to compete in the regional secondary school’s tournament. We were placed in a pool with teams of similar ability to ours so every game was extremely competitive and intense right to the very end. Unfortunately for our team, we had a number of referees officiate our game who were not fully qualified BBNZ refs. Basketball New Zealand has put in place a new initiative where each team needs to provide a student from their school to come along and ref on behalf of the school to promote young people getting in to refereeing. This meant that there were amateur referees officiating very crucial games of ours which unfortunately determined the results of some of our games. When we had good referees officiating our games, the games were always very close and competitive. By the end of the tournament we played a team who we lost to in pool play by 25 points, where we ended up losing in the last 5 seconds of the game to by 3 points. The boys ended up getting 14^th out of 20 teams however, had the skill and ability to challenge teams in the top 10. The boys had a great time at this tournament and played their hearts out in every game. A big thank you and well done to our senior boys Trey Willis-Croft, Isaih Hamlin, Ayzak Bennett and Nathan Luff who have contributed a lot of time and effort to Whanganui High School Basketball over the years. Also, a big thank you to Coach Jason Ashworth who has dedicated a lot of his own personal time into this team. Your efforts and contribution to this team are very much appreciated. The boys were lucky to have you as their coach and mentor.

Grant Jarvis Tournament 2016, Girls Football:
This year the Tournament was in Napier at Park Island Recreational Grounds. Yet again the Girls’ Football Team drew a tough Group with two Division 1 Teams in their group. The Girls’ performed fantastically over the week and after playing 8 Games in 5 days they Won 4 and Lost 4, finishing 19^th overall.

Even though everyone was excellent there were outstanding performances from Rebekah Butters-Chamberlain, Saskia Knight, Airini Ross-Spooner, Clare Cvitanovich, Sara Hills, Rebekah Ngapeka and Ataahua Komen to name a few. Thank you to Colm Smyth Coach and Tom and Karen Clark for their work with the girls.

Girls Hockey:
The girls’ hockey team had a new management team this year and still carried on their quality games throughout the season coming runners up to Waiopehu in the Sec School competition in Palmerston Nth.

Their tournament in Napier went well with wins and loses throughout the week and tired girls by day 5 coming out 6^th place overall.

Thank you to Kane Watkin Coach and Michelle Mitchell Manager for your hard work and dedication to the girls this season.

Boys Hockey:
The 1^st XI boys hockey team had a solid season this year, coming 2^nd place for the second year in a row in Palmerston Nth Div 1 Sec School Comp. The boys also had quality tournament this year which was down in Carterton. They came third, losing their crucial semi-final game to tournament winners Rosmini College. The boys finished off their season strong with a commanding 8-1 hiding over Taradale College for a spot of the podium in 3^rd place. The team is looking strong for the next year as there are a lot of talented young hockey players coming through. Season finished up 19 wins and 3 losses. A big thank you to Langley Atkinson Coach and Steve Rainey Manager for their continued work they do with our boys.

Phillips Electrical A1 Netball:
The netball team had a great tournament finishes 3 spots higher than last year at the Lower North Island Secondary School Tournament in Wanganui coming 7^th in A Grade.

The girls grew each day with some tough games in each pool they played. They ended their tournament on a high beating Wanganui Collegiate 30-16.

Phillips Electrical A1 Netball

The netball team had a great tournament finishes 3 spots higher than last year at the Lower North Island Secondary School Tournament in Wanganui coming 7^th in A Grade.

The girls grew each day with some tough games in each pool they played. They ended their tournament on a high beating Wanganui Collegiate 30-16.

U15 Rugby:
Our U15 Rugby Team went to Wellington again this year to compete in the Hurricanes U15 Tournament.

This year’s tournament was a lot stronger and players were more physical and bigger than last year. Our boys learnt a lot from the week and had a couple of close games but also had a few very hard games but managed to stay positive and continued playing all week.

They finished 16^th at the tournament. Thank you to Bryn Parry and Kent Rivers for coaching the team this year.

1st XV Development Team:
Out 1^st XV coaches decided to take a development side over to Hasting for the Central 6 tournament this year to develop some 2^nd XV players for the 2017 season ahead.

The team finished 3^rd overall with their fair share of injuries on day 1 of the tournament. A big thank you to Charles Osborne, Danny Tamehana – Coaches and Richie Bennett Manager for your time you have given to our team this year with some very successful games – runners up in the U21 Colts division in Palmerston Nth and inter school college match against Collegiate winning 13-8. Well done.

Whanganui High School 1st XI - Rex Dawkins Trophy - Taupo:
WHS Boys were drawn in a tough qualifying group that included the eventual tournament winners, Rathkeale College (Masterton) as well as the Plate winners Rutherford College (West Auckland). A loss to each of these two schools on day one was no disgrace but certainly not the start we had hoped for in terms of a result. The performance however, particularly in the 2-5 loss to Rathkeale was not lacking in effort and desire and suggested that the week would get better. So it was and the final group game saw the boys’ finish 3^rd with a 2-1 win over Taradale High School. The one “blip” on the performance radar came on Wednesday morning when a poor loss to Central Hawkes Bay meant the boys could finish no better than 25^th. The attitude to achieve this goal was seized and the team showed real unity and depth in their final 3 games overcoming Tauhara High School 9-0 and Botany Downs College 4-2 before thrashing Havelock North High School 13-1 in their final game. A feature of the final match was Quinn Mailman’s EIGHT goals including a hat-trick in the first 4 minutes which added to his 4 goals from previous matches saw him win the tournament “Golden Boot”! Others to shine over the course of the week were David Glaister in central defence, Max Davidson who worked tirelessly in both midfield and attacking roles, whilst Tesco Grunwald had his moments on attack and Justis Rikihana constantly tormented opposing defences. Jack Jonas skippered the team well and led by example as well as scoring some valuable goals. A big thank you to Steve Kerfoot Coach and Danny Jonas Manager for their time they have given our boys this season.

By Lisa Murphy, Sports Co-ordinator