Tournament Week Wrap 2025

Well Tournament week has come to an end for another year. This year we sent 6 teams away across the week from Invercargill to Nelson.

The Senior A Netball team were in Dunedin and competed in the B grade division. We started Day 1 with two losses to Blue Mountain (28-15) and to Queens (36-16), however we bounced back on day 2 with 3 good wins against Elsmere (32-25), Riccarton (26-22) and Te Aratai (43-22).

On Day 3 we lost to Waimate (39-25) and beat Queen Charlotte College 27-26. On the last day of the tournament we played MacKenzie College going down 25-11 and our final placing was 22nd out of 32 teams.

This young team should draw plenty of pride on how the week went and things look bright for the future.

Both our Boys and Girls Football teams headed away to Invercargill and Timaru respectively. The boys started the tournament well with a 1-0 win over Muruawai, but then lost 3-2 to South Otago. Day 2 saw a good 2-1 win over James Hargest, and a 6-0 loss to Papanui. Day 3 was a heartbreaking loss on penalties to local rival Bayfield 4-2 . On the last day we played Dunstan High school and lost 4-1.

Overall we finished 12th out of 20 teams. Again the boys team is mainly all year 10/11 students and we can only get better from here.

The girls beat Mount Aspiring 3-2 and lost to St Andrews 6-3 on day 1 . Day 2 was a first up loss to Timaru Girls 3-0 and a win over Wakatipu 1-0. We then finished the tournament very strongly with good wins over Craighead (4-1) and Timaru Girls (2-1) to finish in 9th place.

The Senior A boys Basketball team were also in Invercargill competing in the Southern Cup (see separate article).

The Girls and Boys Junior Basketball teams have just completed a fantastic week competing in the South Island Junior Basketball tournament in sunny Nelson! The Girls playing in the B grade lost to Greymouth by four points in a very physical first up match but then went on to win their next three round robin games against Nelson College, Rangi Ruru and Westland.

The Girls then played Nelson College again in the semi final winning convincingly. Facing Waimea in the final, it was always going to be close. The atmosphere was electric in the stadium as the A and B boys and girls finals were all getting played at the same time. Trinity got off to a flyer but Waimea clawed their way back and it was point for point through most of the third and fourth quarter. The Girls dug deep and finished strongly, taking the momentum in the last two minutes to win 63-56. We should be very proud of these girls. The strength and resilience they showed throughout the competition was outstanding. We’re not used to playing against teams with such height and physicality, yet not once did they give up. A quick dip in the freezing pool was a great way to celebrate!

The Boys playing in A grade had a tougher time with a number of close losses. They were in a particularly tough pool against some of the best and biggest Christchurch high schools like Shirley Boys, Cashmere and St Andrews. The standard was very high but the team fought hard and took lots of learnings away, which will help them in the future. The highlight for them was beating Waimea 73-64 in their last game. Waimea had beaten them earlier in the comp so this was a great way for the boys to finish their campaign and showed lots of character.

Overall the weather was amazing, the Teapot Valley Christian Camp was a great host and the way our boys and girls teams interacted and supported each other was a great example of Trinity College spirit alive and well.

The Trinity Hockey team competed at the Kate Trolove Cup last week in Dunedin. While the results were not in our favour, the tournament was a success with team unity and leadership. It was a pleasure to watch the senior players stepping up to lead on and off the field. It was also great to see the junior players happy to work under the senior leadership team.

This year we had a new coaching team with Jeremy Meikle, Guin Wilson and Luca Holloway who are all past students of the school putting their hands up to volunteer. With only two weeks to make their mark on the team before the tournament, it was exciting to watch them grow over the week and really take control of the team. As the week went on you could see the team becoming more engaged with the coaching team.

Half way through the week we brought in two more players which meant a bit if change around for the team which they embraced with open arms. Wednesday afternoon saw the Coaches/Managers VS the Umpire’s where Luca and Myself decided to show the team how it was done or not, at least I set up a beautiful goal for the team while Luca did all the running

for us both. The tournament finished with a friendly game against Maniototo where we had a 5 goal shootout to finish. Silas did the team proud by finishing the shootout by not letting any pass. He finished 0-1. Well done Silas!!

We then closed out the tournament with Tenpin bowling on Friday, again the players mixed well within their team and fun was the winner on the day.

A huge thank you must also go to Sam and Scott White for all their support throughout the week with some late-night phone calls discussing rules and options, thank you!!

With that brings the season to a close, we need to congratulate the team for winning their division and then going into the tournament and showing the school values in full force. A proud Trinity moment was when the team decided themselves that when they do their cheers at the end of each game the last cheer was for Jesus.

Now that the season has closed we need to thank the players moving on next year, Lucas Macleod, Brent Manangan and of course Silas Webb who has been our goalie now for many years. The team is going to miss his ability back in the goal, it was truly fitting that he won the shootout to finish the tournament and his playing days with Trinity Hockey. With that said, if there is any young people out there that would like to try their hand at being a goalie then

speak to Michael MacKenzie and he will arrange a trial for it. Early next year, Trinity Hockey will have a hockey muster to allow any student that wants to have a go, have a go.

Our tournament games were as follows

Monday Kaikoura 7 – 1 Trinity

Tuesday Menzies 3 – 1 Trinity

Wednesday Taikura 7 – 1 Trinity

Thursday Fiordland 7 – 0 Trinity

Michael Jago ( Manager )

A big thank you to our staff, coaches, managers and officials that helped us out over the big week. Without your support we just could not make this tournament week happen.

Trinity Catholic College would like to express heartfelt thanks to all our sponsors and supporters who have played a critical role in enabling our ākonga to attend tournament week. Great appreciation goes out to Grassroots Trust, Patston Media, Flagstaff, Ellisons Aluminium, Marycare Ltd, LJ Hooker Mosgiel, MTF and many other valued supporters. Thank you, from our community to yours.