Tournaments going ahead due to hard work
SCHOOL SPORT
CLASSROOMS will be a little emptier next week.
Sports fields and courts will be much fuller.
Thousands of secondary school athletes will take a break from their studies to play in the annual winter sports tournament week.
It will be in a reduced capacity and safety protocols will have to be adhered to.
But most tournaments will go ahead under Covid19 Alert Level 2.
Notable among the cancellations were the boys and girls South Island premier football tournaments in Christchurch and the South Island cycling road race championships.
The under15 girls rugby festival in Christchurch and a handful of North Islandbased tournaments were also cancelled.
Otago Secondary School Sports Association regional sports director Nicki Paterson said it was ‘‘gutting’’ for the teams and players that would not get to contest their tournaments.
However, she was pleased so many others would go ahead. Changing plans after the first lockdown had helped facilitate that.
Most sports had looked to regionalise their tournaments.
Only basketball, which played an abbreviated qualification tournament over the weekend, is still having a national championships.
Whether they will go ahead is unclear, although they are not scheduled until the first week of the school holidays.
The other sports are offering alternatives to their normal tournaments. They will look to minimise travel and days off school, while also ensuring the heightened alert level in Auckland will not impact southern teams.
Hockey, girls football and ice hockey tournaments will all be held in Dunedin, while netball will be played in Invercargill.
Paterson said event hosts had worked hard to ensure the tournaments could be held under Level 2 protocols.
‘‘The main things were around the gathering size, obviously up to 100.
‘‘Of course, that’s impacted on spectators, which we understand is really disappointing to family and friends to not be able to watch their loved ones play.
‘‘But if you think about what Auckland’s going through, they can’t do anything.
‘‘So to be able to get these kids on the court and field is awesome.’’
Contact tracing, hygiene and staying home if people were sick were also key components.
While there had been uncertainty throughout the year, she said the schools had been ‘‘really resilient’’ in finding a way to make it happen.
After everything that has happened this year, she said it was pleasing for the week to be going ahead.
‘‘Especially for the year 13s. It’s their last opportunity to play for school; that was always important.
‘‘But we also have to keep it very safe, that’s also very important.
‘‘We’re confident that what we’re going to host next week is going to be safe.
‘‘We’ve got a lot of communications going out to schools about what’s expected from them, too.’’