Sport: Schoolies in town for big sports week in Hawke’s Bay

Hastings Boys' High School player Callan Robson slices through the defence of Auckland side Green Bay High School as the Rex Dawkins football gets under way at Park Island, Napier. Green Bay won 1-0. Photo / Warren Buckland

A week of secondary school tournaments in three sports have brought more than 1200 young sports hopefuls, coaches and managers to Napier this week.

The tournaments, in basketball, football and hockey feature a total of 80 teams.

The influx started on Sunday, the first day in a week of junior secondary school basketball in the Rodney Green Foundation Arena of Pettigrew Green Arena complex in Taradale, featuring 35 teams in a schedule of four tournaments in which the last matches will be played next Monday.

The other two tournaments both started Monday at Park Island, Napier, with 29 teams in the tier 3 Founders Cup (boys) and Jenny Hair Cup (girls) hockey tournaments, and 16 teams in the Rex Dawkins Division 2 national boys’ football tournament.

Napier City Council events manager Kevin Murphy said the events are of “huge” benefit to the region but put pressure on accommodation with motels, school hostels and other accommodations being used.

He said Park Island had become particularly well known to tournament organisers for its capability to host large-scale tournaments.

The council has been working with the three sports to ensure the needs are able to be met, and there will be evaluations taking place after the events are over.

He said the tournament week is one of three “pressure points” each year in Napier-Hastings, along with the Riverbend cricket camps in January and the Under 19 National Youth Tournament at Park Island at Labour Weekend, held annually in Napier since 1976.

The council put aside 68 hectares in 1981, the first fields opened two years later, and the Park Island complex now includes about 20 playing pitches, including enclosed grounds for two rugby fields (Tremain Field), one football pitch (Bluewater Stadium) and two artificial hockey turfs.

In 2017, the council adopted a Park Island Master Plan of staged further development estimated to cost over $25 million to help satisfy the sporting and recreation needs of the city over the next three decades.

The Pettigrew Green Arena facilities were expanded with February’s opening of an adjoining stadium, built at a cost of about $20 million.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.