Term 3 is usually a busy time for sport at Avondale College; however, 2020 has provided us with a fair amount of uncertainty and many challenges along the way due to COVID-19 lockdowns and the restrictions that followed. In the end, all the sports codes for our winter season were abandoned or cancelled with no winners or losers, or promotion or relegation games. Winter Tournament Week was also cancelled this year.
Despite this, there were still a number of highlights of the winter season, including Badminton Champs, Netball Combined Tournament, Squash Champs and Lawn Bowls Champs. As we move into Term 4, we have been able to hold trials for the summer sports. Cricket, waterpolo, volleyball and rugby 7’s will be in full swing next term and we wish the very best of luck to all of our athletes competing. Be committed, train hard, play fair, and the results will go your way.
Badminton
At the Auckland Badminton Secondary Schools Championships our Senior Girls Doubles, Lina Imai and Alyssa Chis, won Silver medals. Our Junior Singles player, Yee Xuan Ng, won a Silver medal.
The Premier Boys team competed in the Auckland A Grade, which was very competitive, placing 9th overall. The Girls Premier team competed in the Auckland Reserve A Grade competition and placed 6th. The Mixed A team competed in the Auckland Secondary Schools Western Zone competition and placed 2nd; the Mixed B team also competed in the Auckland Secondary Schools Western Zone competition and placed 5th. Well done to our badminton players.
Basketball
The Senior A Boys were placed 6th on the points table but were looking forward to producing a stronger second half of the season on the court as they certainly did train with passion and commitment. Our Senior A Girls were placed at the top of the table with 12 points, and both teams were in the Premier Senior A Grades. The U19 Boys placed 6th out of 8 in the Central West AKSS Grade. The U17A Boys placed 2nd out of 7 in the Boys Open B Grade. Junior A Boys placed 4th out of 9 and the Junior A girls placed 3rd out of 6. Both teams played in the Junior A Western Zone. All of our teams did very well considering the circumstances.
Football
Our 1st XI Girls team played in the Senior A Grade competition this year, sitting 5th out of 7 on the points table. Our 1st XI Boys team with their new coaches, Old Boys Jack Smith and Daniel Semp, played in the Senior A1 competition this year and were off to a strong start. When the season was cancelled they were sitting in 6th place. The 2nd XI Girls team played in the Waitakere Senior B Grade this year and had a great season. They were sitting top of the table with a total of 13 points! Well done, girls! Our 2nd XI Boys team placed 4th out of 11 in the Senior B West Grade. The Junior A Boys team placed 1st on the table for the 14 A2 Grade. Well done, boys! Our Junior B Boys team placed 6th out of 11 on the table for the 14B Central Grade. The Junior C Boys team placed 9th in the 13 B North West Grade. Well done to all of our football teams, your dedication, spirit and hard work paid off.
Hockey
The 1st XI Boys had a good season, qualifying for the Super City A1 Competition and were sitting in 8th position overall when the season stopped. Our 1st XI Girls had a challenging season competing in the Open A/B competition, where they were placed at 15th overall. Our 2nd XI Boys competed in the C Grade 9 aside and placed 3rd out of 8 and our Junior U15 Girls competed in the U15B Grade, placing 9th overall. Well done to all of our hockey teams.
Lacrosse
It was a tough season for our lacrosse teams this year. Marina Samountry, an old girl who played for Avondale College, came back once again to coach our girls' teams. Both our Girls A and B teams competed in the Division 2 Grade. We are looking forward to a full season in 2021 to keep on growing and developing this exciting and very tactical game at the College.
Lawn Bowls
Ryan Banks and Nihar Trivedi Represented Auckland for Indoor Bowls Championships.
Netball
It was an outstanding year for netball at Avondale College this year. We had 12 teams across all year levels competing in the Netball Waitakere Secondary School grade competitions.
Our Premier 1 Netball team have performed extremely well this year. Competing in the Waitakere Senior Premier 1 competition, they were top of the table in the Championship round but lost to Saint Dominic’s College just before the second lockdown.
The Premier 2 Netball team competed in the Waitakere Senior Premier 2 competition and were unbeaten in all games played. The Senior A Black Netball team competed in the Waitakere Senior Premier 2 competition and were also unbeaten. They also were promoted to the Premier 2 Grade, which was a wonderful achievement. Final placings for our other senior and junior netball teams are still being finalised. Well done to all of our netball teams.
Rugby
After being placed into the Auckland 1B competition for 2020, the 1st XV had an interesting season. The boys played Mangere College for their promotion/relegation game and won 19-14. It was a tough game and the boys played well. Overall they only were able to play five games and were sitting in 12th place when the season stopped with still half the teams to play! The season was therefore abandoned with no official placings or results given. The 2nd XV boys competed in the Auckland 2C Grade and finished 7th out of 17 overall. Our restricted under 60kg team competed in the Auckland 6th Grade and placed 11th. Our under 15’s, coming into this year with many new faces, competed in the Auckland U15B Grade and placed 11th out of 21 teams. The Girls 1st X’s played in the Auckland Secondary Schools 10’s competition. They are currently placed 4th out of 12 teams. They played very well this season against some fierce competition.
Rugby League
The Rugby League Boys team competed in the Senior A Boys Grade and were sitting top of the table with a total of 9 points for the season. Well done to all the boys in the team for placing 1st on the points table.
Squash
Our Premier Boys were placed 7th in the Premier Boys competition, and also competed in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships in Tauranga where they placed 19th. The Boys B team placed 6th in their grade, which was the Open B Boys competition. The Girls A team competed in the Girls A Open and placed 5th out of 8 teams. The Junior Boys competed in the Open B Boys North West competition and placed 2nd out of 8 teams. This is a wonderful achievement. Well done to all of our squash teams.
Table Tennis
Avondale College has had over 20 students competing on Friday nights in Term 3 in the Waitemata Table Tennis competition. With the Level 3 Lockdown taking over Term 3 sports, the table tennis teams sadly were only able to play two games for their Term 3 season.
Swimming
We had two swimmers participate in the Auckland Secondary Schools Swimming Individuals Championships held in Auckland. These were Olivia Stairmand and Jacob Laurence. Jacob placed in the (boys 14-15 years) events as follows: 2nd in the 200m Freestyle, 3rd in the 200m Backstroke, 4th in the 100m Backstroke and 6th in the 100m Individual Medley. Olivia Stairmand placed in the (girls’ 14-15years) events as follows: 6th in the 400m Freestyle, 9th in the 200m Breaststroke, 13th in the 100m Breaststroke and 13th in the 200m Freestyle. Well done to our swimmers.
Weightlifting
We would like to wish the following students with good luck as they compete in the New Zealand Secondary Schools weightlifting competition on Sunday 27th September 2020. Attending are: Issys Tobia-Pita, Sophia Howsam and Sian Hancy. Best of luck for the competition.
In conclusion
Overall, it has been a hugely disrupted winter sports season as a result of COVID with some teams only playing between one and five games of their season. However the teams have put a lot of hard work, team work and enjoyed participating in winter sport this year despite the challenged that were faced. This shows students, coaches, staff and other helpers that their determination and Heart was considerably strong. There also were some wonderful individual achievements within sport as well as team success: Netball, Squash and Badminton Tournaments and Champs were luckily enough to take place during this season’s challenges, providing the teams and school with some medals and awards.
We would like to thank all staff and helpers who have enabled Avondale College's sporting programme to run this year, and also wish the very best of luck to all students competing in summer codes for Term 4 2020.
- Ms D Dorrington, Director of Sport