Orlando TuhegaVaitupu

ORLANDO TuhegaVaitupu wanted to inspire others as a proud Maori and Pasifika boy, so he made a plan.

Now he is head boy of King’s High School and cocaptain of the first XV, but things were not always so easy for him.

Regardless, the 17yearold always remained proud of who he was.

He inherited his love of rugby from his parents. His mother played for Pirates Wahine and the Otago Spirit, the women’s representative team, while his father represented New Zealand in touch.

It did not matter if it was touch or rugby, he loved them both.

With his parents as coaches and a little bit of talent, he found success on the pitch, but it did not last forever.

There was a period when he struggled and was not qualifying for any teams, but he pushed through by training hard and finding his love for the sport again.

He attributes his success to those failures.

Now he has made the NZ U18 men’s touch team and the NZ U18 Maori men’s rugby trial team.

He also played for the Otago under 17 Maori Tane team, which was a different side of the sport he had not experienced previously.

There was no feeling like performing a haka before the match with a group of passionate fellow Maori boys.

‘‘It’s really cool. It just felt like I was part of something.’’

He takes great pride in his background, with a Maori, Samoan and Niuean mother and a Samoan father.

He applies that pride to his role as head boy and makes sure to be a good role model for young Maori and Pasifika pupils at his school.

Being head boy involves ‘‘a lot more background work’’ than he expected, such as delegating jobs and doing administration. There is a lot of pressure, but he takes it in stride and leaned on others when he needed help.

Getting to head boy was not just luck. When Orlando sat down for the school open day in year 8, he was inspired by the speech the head boy made. He got to work with his parents and made a plan for how he could reach those heights.

When he did, he delivered his first speech to the school in both Maori and Samoan. It felt great to be able to fulfil such an important role, while still being able to represent his background proudly.

Achievements: NZ U18 touch (2021, 2022); Otago touch U18 most promising player (2021); First XV rugby cocaptain (2021, 2022); King’s touch leadership team (2022); 2nd National Secondary Schools Touch Tournament (2021); 1st South Island Touch Championships (2018, 2019); Otago U17 Tane rugby team (2020); Otago secondary school volleyball champs (2021, 2022); Toloa STEAM secondary school scholarship (2022); academic blue (2021); TOA academic scholarship (2021); Mana Pounamu Teina (2020); Level 1, 2 excellence endorsement (2020, 2021); PE top student (2020, 2021); head boy (2022). Role model: His parents, for inspiring and disciplining him. Hopes for the future: To study health sciences at the University of Otago and become a general practitioner.