Tikipunga High School is this year’s Junior Girls and Junior Boys Northland Secondary School Volleyball Champions. The girls’ team beat Whangarei Girls High School 2-1 in a thrilling final. The boys’ team beat Broadwood Area School.

Both Tikipunga High and Whangarei Girls High Schools are preparing to attend the North Island Secondary Schools Junior Volleyball tournament in Auckland from 27 November to 1 December. While this certainly influenced who the teams in the girls’ final would be, the boys’ final composition was unexpected.  Te Kura o Manganuiowae (Broadwood Area School) caused the biggest upset of the Junior Volleyball tournament when they beat Whangarei Boys’ High School 2-0 in their semi-final match. This escalated them to the final where they met Tikipunga for the second time that day.

The Broadwood team of six players, coached and managed by senior students, was invited to attend the Junior Volleyball Finals tournament held on November 21, as a result of them winning the Division 2 tournament early in November.

Oceania Roberts, the senior student that accompanied the team at both the Division 2 and the Finals tournaments was really pleased with the way the boys had competed. “We didn’t place when we came to NASA. We have coached ourselves to be able to play to this level,” she said. Oceania also acknowledged the support of senior boys Cannon Barry and Wiremu Emery who couldn’t attend due to NCEA exams.

Regional Sports Director, Robyn Richards, says “the boys’ team from Broadwood demonstrated great team spirit and were wonderful sporting ambassadors for their kura. They have shown the perfect example of tuakana-teina with remarkable results. These boys have achieved something never done before – followed a win of the Division 2 championship with a Runners Up title in Division 1. It is absolutely fantastic!”