North Island Intermediate School Tournament

A huge congratulations to our Intermediate waterpolo team who have today been crowned North Island B Grade Waterpolo Champs.

They began their campaign on Friday at Sacred Heart in Glen Innes where they easily accounted for Remuera 13 - 3. We then moved to Diocesan for a comfortable win against Pasadena 8-2. This saw us finish top of our pool and through to the Championship Rounds. Friday evening at EGGS the team racked up another convincing wins against Pongakawa from Te Puke 9-3.

Saturday morning saw us all back at EGGS for what was expected to be a tough game against Kristin from Albany. The team started out strong up 3-1 at half time but Kristin powered home as our focus dwindled to be at 4-3 with a minute to go and an opportunity to score. Thankfully the team held strong and managed to hold them out in the dying seconds. Our last game of the day was against Sommerville Int, again expected to be a tough ask. To the teams credit they came out firing and never gave Somerville a chance.  The convincing 8-4 scoreline saw us finish as top qualifier in our Pool and through to the Semi Final against St Peters at 9am Sunday morning.

With only 2 wins between us and being named North Island Champs the team took to the water with heart, passion and most of all control in their semi against St Peters. As with all of our previous games Liam Paterson won the swim off and passed to Connor Paterson who scored within a minute of the game. As per previous games, Theo Baxter proved to be a rock at Keeper stopping several attempts at goal and showing just how important it is to have a strong player in the net. The team powered away finishing with an impressive 9-1 scoreline. Our bench of year 6's, Tori Kolose, Sunshine Cuihua, and Charlotte Baxter were able to be injected into the game for the final quarter and they made the most of their opportunity by holding strong and finishing the game in style. 

For the final hurdle we again came up against Kristin, who had easily given us our hardest game of the tournament. It turned out to be a replica of the first game with us getting out to a convincing 6-1 lead by half time but Kristin showing tenacity to claw back to 6-4 in the final quarter.  Again we managed to hold them out and claim the title of North Island B Grade Champs.

Connor Paterson was named Player of the Tournament and Liam Paterson was named MVP. A big thankyou to Agnes Paterson for coaching, Carol Kent for managing the team and all of the parents who helped with transport and came along to support the kids throughout the weekend.

For photos of our win please go to the Photos Menu

Team: (Y8) Connor Paterson (c) Liam Paterson, Theo Baxter, Anissa Windsor, (Y7) Shane Kent, Mikayla Eruera, Caitlyn Bonnar, (Y6) Nicholas Paterson, Tori Kolose, Charlotte Baxter, Sunshine Cuihua