2022 Wrapped

Anyone with a Spotify account will know at this time of year you are sent some custom playlists based on your listening habits. They act as a great little snapshot of your year, and it got me thinking to what would the school sport playlist for 2022 look like?

It certainly has been a year of two halves! The flow on effect of COVID-19 mandates had a tremendous impact on all parts of life, school sport certainly wasn't exempt from that. Lockdowns and limitations on gathering sizes meant that national and island level school sport was by in large not possible. However, just in time for Summer Tournament Week changes to gathering sizes gave a slither of hope that some events may be able to go ahead with mitigations. A huge thank you to our National Sport Organisations and event partners who have remained in constant contact with us through these challenging times and have always worked collaboratively to ensure the value of participating in school sport is balanced against the health and safety of all New Zealanders. 

A number of modified events were able to take place during Summer Tournament Week, including the NZSS Maadi Cup. The lifting of further COVID-19 restrictions in time for the winter sport seasons allowed for the vast majority of sport to once again take pride of place amongst communities. For SSNZ, this culminated in over 90 events taking place across the country during Winter Tournament Week. Our staff were fortunate to visit a number of events across the week and it was with much joy that we again connected with the pure joy and value of school sport and were reminded of its importance to the lives of so many young people and their schools. We were also able to host the national secondary school sport conference in conjunction with Sport NZ in September for over 400 school sport staff, another fantastic occasion and a great way to acknowledge the work of all sport co-ordinators and directors – school sport simply does not happen without you.

School Sport NZ will be sharing and consulting on its new strategic plan with members during the first half of 2023. We look forward to seeing our school sport whanau at Term 1 meetings across the country. 

I would also like to acknowledge the work of the board and staff of School Sport NZ over these past 12 months. They have largely had to work in a climate of fast paced change with scant information at times. The Health and Safety of Rangatahi and school communities has and will always be the primary driver for decisions but when it was possible, the board and staff acted quickly to ensure where it was safe, sport returned. A huge thank you to you.

School Sport NZ will break for the summer this Friday 16th December but we will follow up on any correspondence through to the 22nd December. The office will re-open on the 18th January 2023.

Have a safe and Merry Christmas, enjoy your summer break and see you in 2023!

Plenty of School Sport to Finish the Year

Despite the end of the school year looming, there has still been plenty of action on the sports field.  Junior Tournament Week was held from 21st – 25th November.  Volleyball featured strongly with the North Island and South Island Cups hosted in Tauranga and Nelson respectively.  In the South Island, congratulations to Nayland College girls and Riccarton High School boys for winning the Division 1 grade and Craighead Diocesan School and Marlborough Boys’ College winning their division 2 grades. Meanwhile at the North Island Tournament, Western Heights won the girls’ division 1, whilst Hillcrest High School won the boys. At the same tournament Whangarei Girls’ High School and Ormiston Junior College boys won their division 2 grades. For the first time a satellite tournament was staged in Wellington which was very successful.  St Orans and St Patrick’s (Silverstream) won the girls and boys grades respectively.  Other tournaments held during junior week were water polo, and badminton.  Results for these events can be found here.

After a two-year hiatus, Condors 7’s was back on the calendar and hosted in Auckland.  In the girls Championship grade, 14 teams entered with Manukura taking the overall title against Westlake Girls’ High School. In the boys’ championship grade 16 teams took part which saw Hamilton Boys’ High School overcome Tauranga Boys’ High School.  The invitation grade was also hotly contested with Epsom Girls’ Grammar School winning the girl’s grade and Kelston Boys’ High School winning the boy’s grade. 

To finish off the year NZSS Touch was held in very trying conditions in Rotorua whilst NZSS Athletics was hosted in New Plymouth.  Full results for these events can be found here.

Boys Gillette Cup cricket is currently being played at Lincoln University with the Girls Gillette Venus taking place from 20th to 22nd December also in Lincoln.