Top of the South Area Schools Tournament
CAS girls touch team just after their win in the girls touch final against Tapawera Area School. Photo: Supplied.
A 20-pupil squad from Collingwood Area School (CAS) travelled to Karamea last week (11-15 April) to compete in the annual Top of the South Island Area Schools Tournament.
Other area schools involved included the host school, Hari Hari, Reefton, Murchison, Tapawera and Rai Valley. Taking the CAS contingent were assistant principal Steve Beck, CAS sports co-ordinator Paula Miller and parent Jules Robinson.
Said Steve: “It was an awesome week away and a grand effort put on by Karamea Area School to host and billet an extra 120 students, considering they only have 42 families in their whole school. These revolving tournaments are some of the biggest events that happen in these school communities.”
It all proved a marvellous week of fine weather, back-to-back competition and social meets. By the end of it all, CAS was placed in every sport and activity except one: golf. As with all area school tournaments, the five core codes of rugby, soccer, volleyball, netball and basketball are supplemented by around a dozen others, including touch rugby, swimming, thwack ball, and unihockey, plus a few peculiar to the area. In Karamea, that meant woodchops and shooting categories as well.
Collingwood placed first in the boys’ volleyball and netball, and cleaned up in the Bake-Off and Wearable Art competitions as well. They also took the Fair Play Award, which Steve says was real recognition of how positively the kids competed.
“Out of the 20 students we took along, 11 were selected to trial for teams to compete at the Area Schools National Tournament in Taupo in July.”
Appreciated CAS competitors at the Karamea tournament include Stephen Watson (Y13) who was selected to trial in all core codes, and Anna Barham and Brianna Davis, who qualified for three of the sports.
In 2012, it will be CAS’s turn to host the annual Top of the South Island Area Schools Tournament again. “We look forward to hosting it again, especially knowing we’re in such good sporting shape,” said Steve.
Gerard Hindmarsh
