SCHOOL SPORT
Gisborne secondary schools are gearing up for a big week of sports with winter tournaments starting on Monday.
Teams from local high schools will be travelling all around the lower North Island to compete against their peers in a week-long festival of sport.
Lytton High School sports co-ordinator Eugene Paea said the school had teams travelling for football and netball, but the indoor bowls team would not be travelling due to safety concerns.
“We’re taking a cautious approach, especially with the uncertainty (of Covid-19).”
He said the school had organised its own tournament should the winter tournaments be cancelled at the last minute because their accommodation had already been booked.
New Zealand Secondary School Sports Council (NZSSSC) chief executive Garry Carnachan said the unfolding Covid-19 re-emergence had forced the majority of the upper North Island events to be cancelled.
In response to the pandemic, they had split the tournaments into smaller, more manageable regional events.
“Obviously anything in Auckland is gone . . . but sport is allowed under Level 2 and schools have got used to that.
“Some events are so large you can’t meet the restrictions; others have schools that pulled out.
“The feedback we have from schools is that if we can hold events, we should.”
Gisborne Girls’ High School sports co-ordinator Michelle Hall said the school was sending away two hockey teams but the football and netball events they had planned to attend were cancelled.
“It is disappointing for all of our girls but especially our Year 13s as this was their last opportunity to represent the school at tournaments.”
Campion College had five teams set to take part during the week, but the school decided not to send any teams due to safety concerns after the first wave of Covid-19.
Gisborne Boys’ High School has gone a separate route to make sure its teams can play.
Sports co-ordinator Peter Simmons said Boys’ High banded together with the other Super 8 schools to offer their own tournament.
Discussions started between the schools during lockdown as they grappled with the possibility of its being cancelled and how they could attend the regularly scheduled winter tournaments if they were still on.
They decided to condense the usual interschool exchanges into a single week and to withdraw their teams from all but one of the NZSSSC tournaments.
“We have four boys going to indoor bowls this weekend in Wellington; everything else we’re not involved in,” he said.
“We have 10 teams travelling from Sunday to all parts of the North Island.”