Sport Thought

New Appointment
Sport Northland is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Tamara Heremaia to the role of Northland Secondary School Events Coordinator. Tamara comes most recently from Whangarei Netball where she has been Netball Coach and Leadership Development Coordinator. Through this role she has had contact in schools with teachers and sport coordinators and is looking forward to the new challenges the secondary school events role presents. Tamara begins her role on June 4th.

The Planning of Ruakaka School’s Sports Programme to Impact Club Membership
Ruakaka Primary School is situated 30km south of Whangarei, it has a roll of approximately 148 children and service a farming community.
Being on the fringe Whangarei, coordinating a variety of sports to visit and work with staff and students can be challenging. Linking the school with these opportunities is essential to encourage the continued involvement in sport... more

Top Town in Pouto
Pouto is a primary school 60km out of Dargaville. Given the school’s isolation it was determined to run a Top Town type of day where the students could demonstrate their developing skills through a range of fun activities... more

1200 Run & Walk in Paihia
Sunday 12 May was a picture perfect day for the Jennian Homes Mother's Day Run/Walk in Paihia. Who can you spot in the photos... here

Sport Thought with Brent Eastwood
Sport Northland's Involvement with the Whangarei Aquatic Centre... more

Junior Cricket Back in the Bay.
This season the Far North Cricket Association ran a junior competition in the Bay of Islands for the first time in a number of years. Starting in November the competition ran for several weeks at Kerikeri Primary before the Christmas break and resumed in the New Year. Practices have been held every Wednesday evening at both Kerikeri and Riverview primary schools with close to 50 children in years 3-6 participating over the season... more

Sport Thought

Volleyball takes centre stage

posted: 24 July 2012

Sport Thought with Brent Eastwood

I have written a few times in this column about the benefits of holding big sporting events locally, particularly international games involving full NZ representative teams.

Most people interested in sport will be aware that the major Northland sports such as hockey, cricket and rugby regularly stage high profile sporting events in Northland, with the first two now regularly able to host matches with full blown NZ teams against other nations.

But there are also other more minor sports where this occurs, with the NZ Water Ski Champs over at Kai Iwi Lakes a really good example that I have also highlighted in this column.

Now another minor sport has managed to do something similar. Volleyball has taken centre stage in Northland this week with the holding of three ‘test’ matches between the NZ Men’s team and the ACT Canberra Men’s State team.

Given that only five test matches are being played between the two teams in the series, it is significant that three of these are being played in Northland. And even more significant is that they are being played in school ‘community’ gymnasiums, where our young volleyball players will be able to watch the international games live and up-close.

Tests 3 and 4 were played at Kamo High School on Tuesday and Wednesday nights while the last test will be played at Kerikeri High School on Thursday night.

Hats off to Volleyball NZ for this initiative, who have stated that they are “very excited about bringing international volleyball to the Northland region”. They go on to say that in recent years there has been a noticeable resurgence of volleyball in the region, particularly the success of Tikipunga High School’s program at junior secondary schools level, and that this tour is sure to provide further impetus to this growing volleyball region.

This is a fantastic coup for the game in Northland, and is sure to make other sports sit up and take notice about what is possible in terms of staging big events in the provinces.

The more top level sport our young people can watch live and up-close, the more it will fuel their own desire to make it to the top in their chosen sport.

Well done volleyball.

Sport Thought with Brent Eastwood

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