School News

Hamilton Boys’ High School fielded nominations in five different categories of the prestigious Waikato Times Waikato Secondary School Sports Awards, held on 1 December. The finalists were as follows:

 

• Best All Rounder: James Bandahi (Multisport, Surf Lifesaving, Athletics, Flat Water Kayaking), Andrew Muggeridge (Athletics, Cross Country, Clay Target Shooting)
• Junior Sportsman of the Year: Alex Bardoul (Rowing, Water Polo)
• Coach of the Year: Nigel Hotham (Rugby), Chris Kuggeleijn (Cricket), David Thompson (Rowing)
• Sportsman of the Year: Chauncey Edwardson (Rugby), Matthew Cameron (Rowing)
• Team of the Year: 1^st XI Cricket (from Dec 2008), Senior Premier Touch (from Dec 2008), 1^st XV Rugby, Senior U18 Rowing Eight

HBHS recently won the NZSS U20 Road Racing Championship. The boys involved with the senior A team time trial team are Corby Price (captain), Danyon Inwood, Stephen Brunskill, Nick Reddish and Sam Dobbs.

The boys’ team’s trial time was 22.05. This is the second consecutive year that HBHS has won the teams’ time trial trophy. We broke the record that has been standing for 23 years by 17 seconds and the second place team was 25 seconds behind us. Prior to the race, the boys felt confident that they could win, while their school coach Brian Fleck estimated their margin to beat the record would be only two seconds. We are expecting to have a very strong team again next year.

Master in Charge of Waterpolo, Mrs Jan Missen, reports on HBHS's clean sweep in the Waikato Secondary Schools Waterpolo Competition held in Hamilton at WaterWorld.

Last night the HBHS Senior Red Team won the Open Secondary School competition vs the HBHS Blue Team 10-7 with the Senior C Team winning the 2^nd Division beating Hamilton Fraser High School, thus demonstrating how dominant HBHS is in the Waikato Secondary Schools competition. Two HBHS players have made national teams, Richard Sneddon for the NZ U15 team and Tristan Houghton for the NZU17 team which will be participating in the World Youth Challenge in Canberra in July. The Senior A team that comprises team members from the Blue and Red team are playing in the NZSS Waterpolo Championships in Wellington the first week of the holidays. The team includes Richard Sneddon, Matthew Wheeler, Mitchell East, Callum Maxwell, Ethan Klaver, MacGordon, Sam Franicevic, Tristan Houghton, Maision Carstensen, Chris Deo and Matt Jeffcoat. Congratulations to the boys on their accomplishments and good luck in the tournaments to come.

Maatangi Whenua is a Year 11 Geography competition run by the New Zealand Geographical Society and the New Zealand Board of Geography teachers. The competition was held in Wellington on 22^nd September between the six regional teams. Congratulations to Adam Cameron, Nick Portegys and Nikki Walker, who won this award.

The competition consisted of five rounds, each covering different aspects of geography. During the first two rounds HBHS came out strong, managing to beat the teacher team. After lunch, the team struggled slightly, but still came out on top, reclaiming the national title.

On Tuesday 27th November HBHS Year 9 cricketers played St Paul's Year 9's in the latest round of the NZCT National Junior Cricket Competition. Having lost to St Paul's by one run at this stage of last year's competition, HBHS were keen to put matters right this year.

Batting first, St Paul's were restricted to scoring only 20 runs in their first 12 overs, thanks to some excellent bowling from Liam McNally and Max Gabolinscy, with some excellent fielding from the side generally. By the 20 over break St Paul's had scored 60 for no wickets with both peners looking dangerous. However, tight bowling by the two spinners meant that St Paul's were being restricted in their scoring. This resulted in batsmen taking increasing risks; wickets started falling at regular intervals once the first breakthrough occurred. After their allotted 40 overs St. Paul's had scored 147 runs with the last batsman run out on the last ball of their innings. Apart from the two opening batsmen (one scored 74, the other 37) no other batsman reached double figures. The pick of the HBHS bowlers were Krishnan Deo taking 4 wickets for 31 runs and Brayden Gaylord taking 2 wickets, while most other bowlers bowled very tightly and were backed up by some very good fielding.
 

By Nikki Preston, NZ Herald, Thursday 2 February

Waiting lists at Hamilton's most popular high schools are so long that some parents are moving to less-desirable homes just to secure their kids a sought-after spot.

Real estate agents have been under pressure to find family homes within the Hamilton Boys' High, Hamilton Girls' High and Hillcrest High zones for families whose children missed out on out-of-zone places.

More than 130 families have enrolled late at those schools and a large number are likely to have moved into the areas solely for the education.

And hundreds of Year 9 students who live out of zone are still waiting for places.

Hillcrest principal Kelvin Whiting said the school was unable to offer places to any students who were out of zone and had no links to the school.

Hamilton Boys' principal Susan Hassall said demand for places kept growing every year despite there only being 400 spaces for Year 9 students. Half the spots were automatically taken by people living in zone.

She said it was quite common that people whose children didn't get in moved houses. She estimated that the 60 late enrolments were likely to have been from people relocating.