School sport: Roll of honour as college athletes excel

Are you one of those people who grow agitated around people who seemingly excel at everything they do?

If so, stay away from Otumoetai College, where they are a dime a dozen.

Thick on the ground are double and triple sporting champions ready to stamp their mark on sports.

Take 15-year-old Year 11 student Kelcy Ballantyne and her 16-year-old Year 12 schoolmate Claudia Richardson, who formed an integral part of the school's volleyball team that won the national title this year.

Both were named in the tournament team and both are in the New Zealand under-19 team to travel to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in late-July. They are eyeing scholarships to the States, with Kelcy also waiting to hear whether she has earned a spot in another New Zealand age group basketball team - the under-17s.

The two will help form a virtually unchanged line-up at next year's volleyball nationals and are hell-bent on defending their title.

Matthew Kriel, a Year 11 student in both the top basketball and rugby teams, in the summer competes in a variety of surf lifesaving disciplines.

He attributes his success in a number of pursuits down to the dedicated work of coaches.

He is enjoying being the new kid on the block for an Otumoetai College rugby side that has proven to be dominant in the secondary school competition sans the top Tauranga Boys' College side.

"It's good to be the rookie in a team," said Kriel.

The Bulls fan, originally from Johannesburg, will play for either the Bay under-15 or under-16 side this year and says rugby is his No1 option.

Not to be outdone is Year 13 student Jessica Lacey, who went with her club to the World Championships in Adelaide last year as a beach sprinter. She is a member of the Otumoetai College First II hockey team and plays in the senior ranks for the defending champion Otumoetai in the intercity Midlands competition.