It can take just one adult to make a difference when it comes to providing a positive sporting experience for secondary school students.

Thanks to the motivation of their new Sport Coordinator and the support offered to her by the new Senior Management at Taipa Area School, a Junior Girls basketball team competed in the annual Northland Secondary Schools Sports Association tournament this year for the first time in four years.

Prior to the tournament, that was held in Whangarei on Tuesday 15 August, the school faced the prospect of having to default the year 9 and 10 girls’ team as a local tangi ruled a number of their players unable to attend. However, new Sport Coordinator Lee-Anne Jury used the unfortunate situation as an opportunity to get some new girls involved. She raced around the school, inviting girls to be part of the team, regardless of the fact that they were not entirely familiar with the code, nor had attended any practices. “We would never have dreamed of pulling out of the tournament. We didn’t want our kids to miss out on such a wonderful opportunity” says Lee-Anne. When asked how the girls had found the experience, Lee-Anne replies with “even the kids that had never played before said they really enjoyed the tournament and want to keep playing basketball.”

The girl’s resilience and the support afforded to the team was evident in their results on the day. Despite suffering an initial heavy loss to Broadwood Area School who were the eventual winners, they beat Te Kapehu Whetu and drew with Dargaville High School in pool play. On countback they finished second in their pool and went on to place fourth after a 22-17 loss to Ruawai College.

Regional Sports Director Assistant, Tamara Heremaia, who organised the tournament, was particularly grateful to the special effort that Taipa had gone to. “In sad circumstances like when a tangi occurs we usually expect schools to have to withdraw. Then when a team withdraws, the impact on an event is generally negative. Taipa Area School has to be commended for taking the extreme measures they did to fulfil their entry commitments.”

Photo supplied - The successful Taipa Area School’s Junior Girls Basketball Team