Year 7&8 players compete in their first waterpolo tournament!

Over the weekend, our Southland Boys’ High School Year 7/8 Water Polo team travelled to Dunedin for the South Island Tournament, held from 7–9 November.

The team - made up mostly of Year 7 players competing in their first tournament - showed fantastic teamwork and determination, winning four out of five games. Among their highlights was an impressive victory over the Canterbury Composite team, who went on to take out the tournament title.

A huge congratulations to Captain Josh Smith, who was selected for the South Island Tournament Team - a recognition given to the top players from across the event.

From Captain Josh Smith:

Last weekend we went to a water polo tournament for South Island intermediate schools. This year we had 9 boys, mostly Year 7s in their first year of tournaments. We stayed with Mrs Mills and my mum, who was coaching.

We won 4/5 of our games with one of them beating the tournament winners, Canterbury composite team, who were allowed to medal this year as a composite team. It was frustrating to then be moved down to the 5–6th playoff due to some crazy results. We also won a quarter final game with a big score of 20–4 so we stopped letting the big boys score and tried to teach the younger boys how to set-up and shoot goals.

This year we met new friends and learned a lot about the sport. We had lots of fun supporting our Hargest friends, especially losing our voices in their nail-biting B grade final, yeeeeeeeeeahhhhh!

I was really surprised to be nominated by the other teams, coaches and referees for the Tournament team. Which had 1 Otago player, myself and the rest from Canterbury. I did not expect to be standing beside the best players in the South Island.

Thanks to the team for being awesome!