Sanix World Rugby Youth Tournament, Japan 2013

Sanix World Rugby Youth Tournament

2 years ago, I was nervous going into the AIMS games tournament, taking on 31 different schools from around the country to be crowned the Intermediate Rugby sevens champs of New Zealand. I remember the very thoughts going through my mind before the grand final. "Am I good enough", "Are we going to win?", "Am I going to get injured?". All very normal feelings leading into a big game. Imagine that feeling, times ten.

After 4 months of intense training I am preparing to take off to Japan to battle it out in the annual Sanix World rugby tournament. My school won the right to do so by winning the National top four final last year against Otago boys. I am leaving tomorrow with huge excitement as well as a nervous feeling in my stomach. Knowing that I will be representing New Zealand alone is a huge honour, and I will do my very best to make sure we give others a very good impression.

We are staying overseas for the whole school holiday period of two weeks. I am looking forward to the challenge as well as being very thankful for the oppurtunity to be apart of such an event. This is an experience I know I will never forget, and I thank God for blessing me with this gift.

Thank you so very much to all those who helped fundraise for part of my trip, it means a lot to me that you were willing to bless me and contribute to this. May God bless you family, friends and teachers. Alofa tele atu.

The end of a new begining

Hi all, I firstly like to apologise for the lack of consistency in my blogging, the truth is my school life has taken up most of my spare time and it's been pretty full on throughout the entire from sport to in the classroom. Otherwise it feels great to write another post and I'm pretty keen to tell you about my journey so far at my new school Saint Kentigern College.

One highlight is that I have been playing basketball for most of the year, I have been playing for the U15's side and I have enjoyed every minute of it. It's really helped with my fitness, you know with all the running back and fourth, it's also improved my skills which include hand-eye co-ordination.

Another adventure would be my Rugby, our U15's team 1 win short of making the top four finals. We as a team all know we are one of the best teams in the competition but honestly knew we didn't play to what was our potential as a team. We played great in different bits and patches but it was all too late while an upset win put us in a narrow position to make the top four. Looking down on my own performance I believe that I did a good job on the wing, I wasn't really comfortable in the position but I gave it my best shot, I trained well and was credited with a few tries throughout the season. Now all I do is wait for next season as I got nothing to do in the weekends anymore!

Another highlight involved with Rugby is that I went down to a tournament in Hastings called the Quadrangular held by a lovely school called Lindisfarne College. I was selected to go down with the 2nd XV side, I was hugely honored to even be considered for this historic event and am still on a buzz on how awesome the experience was! I have to tell you, sitting in a minivan squashed in between all your mates for six straight hours isn't an awesome feeling, but I got to say it all paid off when we got down there. I was billeted with a half a dozen mates and we had an awesome house to stay in, with a pool table as well as  table tennis. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and thanked them many times over for their awesome hospitality. We played two games and they were against top 1st XV from the lower part of the country (Wellington, Christchurch) I started on the wings for both games and was hugely thankful for the opportunity. We lost against Scotts College (soon to be crowned the new champs) by two tries to three, we were proud of our efforts and I was lucky enough to score on debut. Our second game was a fairly one sided affair against St Andrews. We weren't communicating on defense enough which proved costly when they utilized their decisive backs out wide.

Another memorable experience was attending the formal dinner held in the college's dining hall, very traditional, prestigious feel to the occasion which I emphatically enjoyed. The food was awesome by the way!

These have been only SOME of the awesome highlights I've had throughout the year, I'm only just starting college and yet it's been so exciting, I'm keen for new challenges as well as oppurtunities to arise. GO THE MIGHTY SAINTS!!!!! (We won Nationals, we are the best school in the country at RUGBY)!!!!!

Fresh Start, New begining.....

Wow, this feels good, brings back good memories to be honest. I haven't blogged in ages! (Sorry to those who have been waiting for a post!). If you're wondering where I am at right now I'm at at Saint Kentigern College. I am there on a 5 year Rugby Scholarship. It's been awesome so far. Though there were a few downs and bumps I have really started to settle in. Everything here is great, the sports, the amazing facilities and some cool friends.

Term one has just finished and I am now on a holiday. The great news is that I went to a trial for the U15's side and made the squad. We had a match just recently against Tauranga boys College we won comfortably and in the making I scored three tries, it was a great feeling, I finally had that feeling - I  belonged to something if you know what I mean. This term was more of a taste or a learning curve for me, in this next term I hope I can make more progress and completely settle. I am really looking to what's in store for me especially the Rugby.  HAPPY EASTER, (Tigers have had a slow start but she'll come good, COME ON THE TIGEEZ!

CHAMPIONS!

Just this week our school's Intermediate athletes were given the oppurtunity to compete with the best of the best in the Eastern zone. We did exceptionally well to break three records and many more placings. We won all of the running relays and broke a record for one of them! Check this clip out to see just a snippet of how well our school did on the day! http://player.vimeo.com/video/32886693?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0

PES shares with Tagata Pasifika - TVNZ TVone

Tagata Pasifika visited Pt England School and our Manaiakalani Film Festival.

Fighting to the very end......

This event that we were about to take part in was quite nerve racking yet exciting, our Yr 8 boys team had won the Eastern Zone title. And now they were headed for the Auckland Volleyball Championship next….

I was given the opportunity to go with them and film their matches. They always knew that this was not going to be easy, I mean of course it’s not! It was the Champions of Champions tournament! The boys were told that they needed to win at least two of their three pool games to make it into the semi final stages.

The team were determined to establish themselves as a real threat in this tournament in their first match, they had all the athletic skill and ability to go all the way, all they needed to do was use it. Really the key to volleyball is awareness and knowing what to do at the right time. In their first game they played with a lot of heart coming back from a 12 point deficit and only losing by six.

Though the score did not show their efforts their determination would show in their next game against the undefeated Block House Bay school. This game was do or die for the boys, if they lost it would be all over red rover. What made it quite emotional was that this would be the last time that the boys would be playing volleyball together as a school team.

I quickly ran to the corner of the huge court to get the camera out as I knew that the boys were ready to play this time round… The whistle went, there was a good passage of play going on between the two teams, the game was flowing quite well with both schools getting the ball over the net into their oppositions position.

The ball was then turned back into Point England’s territory and they were ready to counter the opponents front line defence. The ball went to the back line of attack with the game plan being to get it to the setter(Tamati) on the second hit. Raven set it up for Tamati, Tamati then gently layed up the ball for Ieremus to have a good shot at the ball. Ieremus leap up into the air like a Frog to a fly! WACK!!! The ball came flying to the ground like a meteorite crashing into Earth. One point to Point England! The team gained their confidence from that play, and from their nothing could stop them. The boys successfully kept their hopes alive winning comfortably by 8 points.

After the match boys sat down and talked about what they did well and what they could improve on, kind of like a PMI for Sports if you ask me! The team still needed to win this game to stay alive with the first game costing them dearly making them have to win all their other games. In this next game we found a team like us, 1 win 1 lost and they needed to win this game to stay alive. The boys were looking to carry their aggressive performance in their game earlier on. The game looked like it was slipping away from them at one point but inside they knew that they deserved to go through to the next stage. The boys did that and fought back from a a six point lead and one by 2 points.

The boys were pleased with their effort and went onto the next stage. Coming up against the fearsome Viscount school they were the underdogs. In the beginning of the battle they were leading by two points, but experience and composure for the Viscount side proved to strong for us with Viscount winning the game and going onto win the competition. The boys played to the very end and competed what was to be the last volleyball school team for them.

The boys did exceptionally well to get this far and I am very proud of them, and I'm sure that the school is and will be proud of them too! Well done boys……..

Space Objects Measurements..

I just witnessed one of the freakiest things I have ever seen. This term we are studying space and beyond, and just this morning we were looking at a clip of the scale of stars and planets. Watching the planets getting bigger through measurement. the planets got bigger and bigger...... Mercury,Mars,Venus,Earth, Neptune, Uranus. I was amazed by how big the planets of this universe really were. Then the Sun popped up my eyes widened. 1,392,000 Ks!!!

I read all of the facts about it, I was about to quit of the clip knowing that their was nothing bigger then the sun, and then I read this: But wait there’s more.... I couldn’t believe it! There was something bigger then the Sun! OMG I was quite scared and excited to find what was bigger then the this humongous the star! My eyes were about to pop out watching these massive stars go on and off the screen, Sirius, Vega, Pollux, Arcturus, Aldebaran, Rigel, and more...

I finally reached the biggest star, the VV Cephei. It has an enormous measurement of 2,644,800,000 KM as it’s diameter! This clip really got us thinking how tiny our home really is? It’s actually quite scary if you think about! But the main question is: Are there any life forms around the universe?