The Rotorua Boys' High School football team finished third at the 2018 Boys' Malcolm Cowie Tournament. Photo / Supplied
The Rotorua Boys' High School football team finished third at the 2018 Boys' Malcolm Cowie Tournament. Photo / Supplied
The Rotorua Boys' High School first XI have improved astronomically in the last year and with a squad full of youth it seems the future is bright.
Last year they finished 23rd in the Malcolm Cowie Tournament, the second-tier national secondary school boys' tournament, and second-to-last in the Under-19 BaywideYouth Premier competition.
In a remarkable turnaround, this year they jumped 20 places to finish third overall at the Malcolm Cowie Tournament and finished first-equal with the Tauranga Boys' College second XI in the Baywide Youth Premier.
Rotorua Boys' coach and director of football Mark Trembath said the Malcolm Cowie Tournament was full of top quality teams.
"We had a tough pool, all the Auckland teams that don't go to the top tier nationals - there's only four spots for Auckland schools - go to this one."
Despite being the youngest team at tournament, in pool play Rotorua Boys' beat Sancta Maria College 4-0, ACG Parnell College 10-1, drew with Waitakere College 2-all, beat Fairfield College 8-0 and drew 0-all with Albany Senior High School. They finished second in their pool to book a spot in the quarter-finals.
Year 9 Rotorua Boys' High School football player Bronson Anderson runs the ball against Kingsway College during the Boys' Malcolm Cowie Tournament. Photo / Supplied
"In that last pool game, against Albany, we had to draw or beat them to go through. They've finished in the top four for a number of years and have some great coaching staff. So, holding them to a 0-all draw was amazing, it was the first time in years that they haven't made the top eight."
In the quarter-finals Rotorua Boys' took on One Tree Hill College.
"They were up 1-0 after five minutes. We ended up equalising with about 10 minutes left and we went to a penalty shootout. Our 13-year-old goalkeeper Tom Parry won us the game, we won the shootout 9-8."
They played Elim Christian College in the semi-final, but were up against it from the get-go with players out injured, and lost 2-0.
"They were a full team of Year 13s and their size, speed and strength just got the better of us."
They played Kingsway College in the third-place playoff and despite Rotorua Boys' dominating possession and territory, the score was locked at 0-all after normal time. However, they held their nerve in the shootout to win 4-2, Parry the hero again with two saves.
"We definitely had the youngest squad there, we had four Year 9s and one Year 10 player - we were the only team with Year 9 players. The whole purpose was to give these young guys some experience.
"We played really strongly and physical football. Defence-wise, we made sure we didn't allow any space for the other team, we man-marked really closely. We played really attacking football, we pushed the wing backs right up into the attack, which resulted in a lot more goals," Trembath said.
The rise of Rotorua Boys' football has not gone unnoticed. Kelvin Cunliffe, George Parry, Dylan Tamariki, Bronson Anderson and Tom Parry have been selected for the New Zealand Age Group Talent Centre squad.
Tom Parry has also made the under-19 Hamilton Wanderers National League squad, while Cunliffe and Ellis Breadmore are in the Bay of Plenty men's National League Futsal squad, which Trembath manages.
"Lots has happened this year, it's really cool. It's been an amazing year, we've only been doing the Football Academy here for just over a year but it's paying off.
"We only lose two guys from the first XI this year and one the year after that, so we've still got a young squad for the next two or three years. The goal next year is to qualify for the Premier Secondary School Nationals as well as the Futsal Nationals in Wellington in term one and to finish top four there," Trembath said.
