IT was almost the Hastings Boys' High School 1st XV rugby team's year on the national secondary schools scene.
Seventeen consecutive wins including the Hurricanes title and the Super 8 title before a 14-13 loss to Mount Albert Grammar School in the final of the national top four knockout tournament in Palmerston North last month. The major question in the wake of this success is whether or not it will be converted into silverware at the Hawke's Bay Secondary School Sports Awards function to be held in Napier's Municipal Theatre on October 31.
The team is a finalist alongside regular finalists and national champions, Napier Girls' High School and Napier Boys' High School orienteering teams, and the national title-winning Hastings Boys' High School junior softball and Havelock North High School junior girls futsal teams. It's a quality list.
As expected head coach of the HBHS 1st XV Mark Ozich is a finalist for the coach award. If he is going to be pipped for the award it could be by a bloke who has an office a couple of doors down from his in the HBHS gym, Dean Hulls. In addition to coaching his Australian under-18 100 and 200m sprint champion daughter Georgia to a world ranking of 20 in the 200m at the under-20 world championships in Poland, Hulls guided several Kiwis to multiple national titles at the Oceania Regional Athletics Championships and the HBHS 1st XI hockey team to second place at the national India Shield tournament.
The feats of NBHS and NGHS orienteering coach Derek Morrison, who has again savoured success at international level, and Taradale High School's adventure racing, multisport and volleyball coach Pauline Edwards cannot be discounted.