Keeping Covid in its place

Will Johnston

 Despite Covid-19 disrupting the sports year, the Taranaki Secondary School Sports Association (TSSSA) managed to attract nearly 4000 competitors.

 At the beginning of the year, 40 events were originally planned but lockdown meant only 29 events, including the Taranaki Girls Summit, were held.

That compared with 43 in 2019.

 Regional sports director Rebecca Scott said 3,741 students from 13 secondary schools and three Kura Kaupapa in Taranaki took part in  TSSSA events this year.

 This compared with 4,146 students in 2019, she said participation would have been much higher with the original schedule if it wasn’t for Covid.

 The purpose of these events is to provide quality sport and physical activity opportunities for secondary school students in Taranaki.

 There is a mixture of qualifying events for New Zealand Secondary School and regional championship programmes, in which schools compete for regional trophies.

 An array of sports from golf, surfing, Rogaine, cross-country, futsal, rugby league, volleyball, basketball and Ki O Rahi were added to the schedule.

 “Skateboarding was a new event on our calendar this year which captured and provided an opportunity for new students to compete for their school in a regional competition,” Scott said.

 “It was hugely successful with Drop Deep New Zealand an out for regional provider running the event in conjunction with Taranaki Skateboarding and TSSSA.”

 She said next year she will look at ways to grow the number of girls entered in the competition. 

 Disc golf was also introduced for the first time which coincided with its rotational golf day in Inglewood.

 Scott also organised the Taranaki Mountainairs 3x3 players to attend the senior event and play a five-minute exhibition match against a team.

 “This created a really great atmosphere and attracted a huge amount of interest from the schools.”

 Scott said there were many standout performances by students throughout the year.

 “We saw lots of those at modified sports week which is a whole week of shortened versions of sports specifically for year nine and 10 students. This was a chance for many students to try a new sport like ultimate frisbee, cricket sizes, kiwi tag and five aside football.” 

“Students from Te Kura o Nga Ruahine Rangi were fully engaged in the ultimate frisbee, especially the girls who were getting lots of air on their throws,” she said.