The Devonport Flagstaff Page 35
May 20, 2016
Takapuna School NewS
Grammar MAY 20, 2016
end-of-season tournaments for summer sports trained very hard,” said Jacob Silk, a Year 12 student who has been playing water polo since he was in primary school, under his father’s guidance. “My dad (Joseph Silk) was our coach every Wednesday. He treated training even more seriously than we do sometimes, so our team made more and more progress through this season.” As a result, the whole team played tremendously well and came away with three wins, three draws and one loss. The best win was a 6-2 victory over St Patrick’s Silverstream. Two weeks later at the national championships the boys team came fifth and the girls team was placed ninth. By Ming yAng
Ultimate Frisbee The tournament was in Taupo this year, where 21 TGS players joined the other 15 top teams. At least four 50-minute games were played a day, over the course of the tournament, which was enough to exhaust the students by the time they packed their bags for Auckland. The girls team, with two new players, played each game with an intensity that secured them a place in the third-fourth playoff. They won the game against Hutt Valley High School for a well-deserved third place, an improvement from last year’s sixth. The boys team showed incredible skill and managed seventh place. The highlight was their game against Hamilton Boys’ High School, when they were down 6–1 but scored seven consecutive points to win the game. Spirit awards are exclusive to Ultimate Frisbee and are selected by the opposing teams to award the person they thought was not only the best player but also someone who honoured the rules and other players an important trait for a self-refereed sport. Congratulations to Victor Tsyan and Olivia Boniface – the two players who received these awards from our teams – for their hard work and spirit during the two tough days in tournament. By JuliA giurgiu Water polo A part of the national Summer Tournament week, the senior boys water polo representatives Aidan Aubert, Luca Burney, Zane Kelbrick, Jacob Silk, Jack Alderson, Harry Cronshaw, Issac Collinge-Moore, Chris O’Connor, Louis Curham and Jono Weston – played two games a day at the North Island Water Polo Championships, at Epsom Girls and Diocesan Schools, and the Millennium pools.
“I think the advantage in playing this game for us was we worked more as a team than in training,” said Harry Cronshaw (Year 12), considered the most tenacious player in the team. “We had training two times a week, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and we
Volleyball The Senior Boys Volleyball team of Brett O’Neill, Josh Harris, Gaige Nortje, Tom Smeed, Alex Roberts, Jac Roberts, Will Watson, Liam Donnelly, Ananda Birchfield and Keenan Hodge, coached by Pete Hodge and Tristan Hegglun, attended the New Zealand Secondary School Championships, in Palmerston North. The boys did extremely well to qualify for 1st division. But as a result they drew an extremely tough pool, having to take on Manurewa, the Auckland champs and eventual finalists, and Riccarton High School, the South Island champs. After two losses and a win in pool play, the boys played off in Division 2. After two wins and two losses with one exceptional 3-0 win over Western Heights B, the boys placed 20th out of 72 teams. From this tournament Will Watson was selected for the New Zealand U17 Youth Volleyball team to travel to the USA in a few months’ time.