Small Ball
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Studies all but ground to a halt for the 50 senior pupils at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Ruamata during last weekís Furnware Secondary Schools Basketball Premierships.
The decile 1 school was a beneficiary of Basketball New Zealandís new ìAî division for small schools under 600 co-ed students or 300 single sex, entering teams in both the boys and girls grades of Zone 2.
While the boys found the going tough, the girls finished fourth to qualify for the national tournament in Christchurch later this month.
ìWeíre having a really good time,î says girls coach Mark Nicholas during the competition in Rotorua. ìWeíre reveling in this opportunity to be in a regional tournament Ö weíve never had a chance before this one came along.
ìBeing so small, there arenít many sports we can play. This is a dream come true.î
About 30 of the schoolís students are based in Rotorua, while the balance attends a satellite campus in Tauranga.
ìThis makes practice very difficult,î admits Nicholas. ìWe had two practices before this tournament and weíve never been able to get everyone together.î
While nearly half the roll was playing hoops, the tiny school also fielded a boysí hockey team at the Johnson Cup tournament in Timaru.
Generally, though, basketball is a sport that can be easily contested by smaller schools because they only need five players to take part. Hamiltonís Nga Taiatea Wharekura, another low socio-economic school of 115 students, entered four teams in the basketball premierships – one each in senior boys and girls, and junior boys and girls.
In the South Island, Twizel Area School caters for 143 students from years 1-15 and entered a boys team in the southern ìAî premiership.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, Kelston Boys High School and Rangitoto College secured top seedings for the Furnware-sponsored ìAAî national championships at North Harbour, winning their respective finals at the Zone 1 premierships.
Traditionally, the national secondary schools draw is determined by final placings the previous year. Since both boys (Westlake Boys High School) and girls (Northcote College) champions came out of the north in 2006, the winners of that tournament automatically inherit the top spots in this yearís draw.
Fittingly, the í06 national championship runners-up – St Patrickís College of Wellington in the boys and Rangi Ruru Girls School from Christchurch in the girls – also retain those seedings this year by winning their respective zones.
