Jamie Davis' passion for creating the best rugby programme at Otumoetai College is obvious from the moment you meet him.
For 10 years, he has coached at the school, mostly at First XV level, and the head of physical education is in charge of driving the rugby programme.
"It has been taking some really good steps forward. If you look over the last decade, the college has performed pretty well," Davis said.
"We have made several initiatives over the years. The first was to get into (Baywide) division one and make that a minimum requirement, and that's been done.
"The second is that we have a pretty good programme where we work with the (Otumoetai) intermediate and bring the students into our college. We use our sports co-ordinator, Paul Braddock, who goes there and upskills the students with some of our senior students, and then he coaches their entry team into the college.
"That has been working well. This year, we have had a sports education course that has focused in and around netball and rugby. It has made a significant difference to rugby because we have just on 50 per cent of our First XV in that course.
"They have done the 'You make the referees cool' course, so they're upskilling themselves on the laws, and they're doing a lot of weight training, fitness training and testing.
"They are getting expert input broader than the college (including from Bay of Plenty Rugby) and that's been a really good step."
Davis is pleased with the improvement in the First XV's performance over the last decade.
"From 2003, we have won division one twice, in 2004 and 2006, and were runners-up in 2011, and have been in division one a lot more than in division two.
"We were third last year and are on track to do well again this year. But I think more importantly, in the last three to four years we have been beating all the other local co-ed First XVs and have put a reasonable acid test around that.
"The First and Second XVs train together now. In the past, we had to get over an 'us and them' context and that has gone. The senior rugby community here at the college is really, really strong and this is fostering a much greater skill set, competing much more for spots in the team and building the depth deeper.
"Our Second XV last week beat Katikati First XV, which shows the programme here has real potential."
Richard Brown, Year 11 dean, shares the First XV coaching duties with Davis and believes their role is more than rugby mentors.
"Jamie and I share the job of coaching the team and spend countless hours developing the team," Brown said.
"We work with the talent that we have and attempt to do the best with it.
" I believe that we have a responsibility of instilling moralistic values into these young men, helping them to develop as productive citizens in society, in addition to making them the best rugby players they can be."