Super 8 is an association of central North Island boys’ high schools with strong sporting traditions.
Rugby was the first code to be contested, in 1998.
Gisborne Boys’ High have won the rugby competition once, in 2011, and been runners-up in 2000 (jointly), 2006 and 2010.
In the football competition, Gisborne Boys’ High School’s best finish since their debut fourth place was in 2015, the last year they hosted the tournament. They were fifth.
“Gisborne have finished sixth four times, seventh 10 times and last seven times,” Itman said.
“Our goal is to get out of the seventh and eighth spots. The last time we got sixth was in 2017, when Darren Larkins was coach . . . he came back as assistant coach last year, and Oli Aldridge, the last Boys’ High captain to raise the Bailey Cup (in 2019), uses his filmmaking skills for video analysis.”
Wild weather has curtailed the Gisborne school team’s preparation for tournament play.
“This year we were accepted as competitors in the Hawke’s Bay high school league for the first time,” Itman said. “But Cyclone Gabrielle put a stop to that. All the administrative work we did last year for this season came to nothing. Now we need to come up with a different idea for next year.
“If you don’t take part in a competitive league you will never improve. The best fitness is match fitness.
“But at least we had training sessions before school twice a week in Term 1. Term 2 was a disaster. Most of the time we had only one session a week because of the weather.
“Most other schools weren’t available for exchanges because they had their own leagues.
“We are the only school in the Super 8 not taking part in a league competition, and it’s the second year in a row that has been the case.”
They had managed to get two games against outside schools. They lost 5-0 to Rotorua Boys’ High in Rotorua and 3-0 to Tauranga Boys’ College in Tauranga. Last year Tauranga were Super 8 and national secondary school football champions.
In other games, Gisborne Boys’ High beat Lytton High School 3-0 and lost to Gisborne Thistle 5-2, although the halftime score was 1-1 . . . high school students Cory Thomson and Oska Smith played for their club side in the second half.
Itman will have at his disposal all the Boys’ High players who normally turn out for clubs. That means Thistle players Thomson (centreback), Smith (winger), Hugo Lodewyk (goalkeeper) and Alex Shanks (striker), United’s Jacob Adams (striker), Matt Hills (attacking midfielder) and Kaden Manderson (leftback), and Bohemians’ Luke Stoltenberg (centreback) get to wear the school colours in a tournament this year.
Itman’s dream is to have the best players from all the high schools — with a sprinkling of young adults returned from tertiary education — playing for a club team entered in an outside competition.
In the meantime, he will be happy to get his Gisborne Boys’ High team finishing above seventh in the
Super 8.
Groundsman Marty Ryan has prepared the two Rectory pitches as best he can under the circumstances. He’s hoping they can take all the games they’re scheduled to take, but he has options should things cut up rough.
This will be the fourth Super 8 football tournament for which he has prepared the grounds. The first was in 2000. He reckons this will be the last where he will be looking after the pitches. He passed 65 a few years ago and expects to be an interested spectator the next time the tournament comes around.
Gisborne Boys’ High School are in the pool containing Hamilton BHS, Palmerston North BHS and Rotorua BHS.
The other pool comprises Hastings BHS, New Plymouth BHS, Napier BHS and Tauranga Boys’ College.
A total of 20 games will be played over the three days. All but one are scheduled to be played at the Rectory.
On Monday and Tuesday, two games at a time will be played at 9am, 10.30am, 1pm and 2.30pm.
Playoff games will be played on Wednesday. The seventh/eighth playoff will be at Harry Barker Reserve at 9.30am. The fifth/sixth and third/fourth playoff games will be at the Rectory, also at 9.30am. All games except the final will be 35 minutes each way.
The first/second playoff — the final — will be at the Rectory at 11am. It will be 40 minutes each way, with provision for extra time of 10 minutes each way and, if the scores are still level, penalties.
“People can come along and see some exciting football over the three days,” Ryan said. “It’ll be fantastic for the public.”
A welcoming function will be held in the Gisborne Boys’ High School hall tomorrow, and at 7pm a managers’ meeting will be held in the Rectory pavilion.
