Sport Director’s Report

The Rangitoto College Sport community is something special and it is a great privilege for the Sport Department to work with this simply outstanding group. As I glance at our coaches and managers spreadsheet on my screen, it highlights around 250 amazing students, teachers, parents, and community stakeholders who week in week out give up their time unselfishly to coach and manage the many teams we have across 30 plus sports. These wonderful people make sport possible for our students and we are so grateful to you all. Add in those who umpire and referee, and of course the many parents, caregivers, friends, and extended whānau who support our students and teams in rain, hail or shine—we thank you! From athletics all the way through to yachting, our school delivers a myriad of sport opportunities and it is our goal to provide something everyone, regardless of skill level or aspirations. On any given day this can be seen with a multitude of sport activities taking place, which range from ‘have a go volleyball’ opportunities at lunch time, to social table tennis after school, to high performing teams preparing for national level competition, and so much more. Regardless of the level, sport provides a platform for enhanced physical, social, and mental wellbeing of our students, whilst also facilitating cultural connectiveness. Further, it serves as a platform to develop the school values of courage, respect, excellence, integrity, and pride. When watching our teams play, I am constantly impressed by our sport students who exude these values, not only in competition, but in all other areas of their lives, and this is what really matters.

As per 2020, these values have shone through as our students and coaches have had to endure another lockdown which brought most of our winter sports to a grinding halt, and in some cases robbed a number of our teams of the opportunity to achieve higher honours. The week of lockdown, our Premier Boys Basketball team were scheduled to play Westlake in the final of the Auckland competition and our Premier Girls Netball team were to play Carmel in the North Harbour final. Similarly, our Premier Boys Football team had a critical match against Kings which would determine the opportunity to play for possible promotion. Although we were deservedly and proudly awarded championship status as the top finishers of both the aforementioned basketball and netball competitions, I know our players desperately wanted to play in their finals and our community wanted to be there with them. The cancellation of winter tournament week and the basketball nationals scheduled for the school holidays, further took away opportunities from our athletes—we feel especially for our Year 13 students who were unable to experience these special occasions. Our hearts go out to all students and coaches who have worked so hard throughout this season to have these special moments taken away. I commend everyone for never giving up hope and for the way you have all responded during this tough time. Most of you kept training with the resources you had and many of our coaches stayed connected to their teams, providing ongoing support, guidance, and motivation in challenging circumstances.

Despite missed opportunities because of Covid-19, this year has still provided many outstanding moments from a sporting success perspective. Although all of these cannot be covered in this article, a number of great achievements include national championship titles to our Premier Boys Volleyball team, our sailing team, and our swimming team. National podium places were also achieved in athletics and para-athletics, beach volleyball, premier girls volleyball and premier boys and girls water polo. Furthermore, students in many other sports achieved outstanding national successes in badminton, stand up paddling, skateboarding, judo and golf—to name a few. Of note, our female sports student leader, Shaunna Li is New Zealand’s senior women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles champion. It doesn’t get better than that.

In conclusion I would like to thank everyone involved in the Rangitoto College sport community for everything you do for our school, for each other, and for sport. Also, our key sponsors and suppliers for your ongoing loyalty and desire to support our school. Special thanks to our student sport leaders Shaunna Li and John Frimpong for your drive and support of all things sport throughout the year. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge and thank my team, Nat Moe, Ryan Williams, Sarah-Jane Beck and Alex Ruck for your ongoing professionalism and unwavering commitment to our sport community.

Trevor Meiklejohn Director of Sport