St John’s College junior canoe polo team crowned national champs

St. John’s College Junior Canoe Polo Team; Jai Smith (left), Jayden Parker, Campbell Thompson, Joshua Street, Taine Smith, Corban Hocking and Ollie Danes.

Three Hastings schools placed first in their respective divisions at this year’s canoe polo New Zealand Secondary School Championship and Cup.

Along with St John’s College junior canoe polo team taking home the national champ’s title, Havelock North School senior and junior girls won their divisions and Lindisfarne College junior team won the second division.

St John’s senior team captain also won top scorer.

The championships were held at the Mitre 10 Park Hawke’s Bay with high schools from all over New Zealand travelling to compete.

Year 11 student Josh Street, who has been in the team for three years, said while he didn’t expect to win, he had expected his team to do well in the tournament.

“The boys’ communication on the water was good and everyone was playing as a team,” Street said.

Out of the eight games over three days the team won six and drew two, beating out Palmerston North Boys’ High School in the finals, 5 to 2.

“We played pretty well, and we had a big win. Our players improved significantly. It just gives us the motivation to keep going and doing well in future games,” Street said.

The St John’s College teams had been unable to play in the regional tournament in the leadup to the championships, due to Cyclone Gabrielle. The college had a blanket stand-down from all sports while it helped with the cyclone recovery efforts within the community.

“We were lucky that they accepted us into nationals because you need to qualify at regionals to play,” he said.

The senior team came fifth, beating Hastings Boys’ High School 5 to 4 in overtime.

Captain Khan Smith explained it was the first time his team had played together.

“Over the weekend we came together quite well and towards the end, we were playing really good polo,” Smith said.

Year 12 student Smith plays guard and centre, and was also named top scorer of the tournament.

“I was up there in the top three consistently over the weekend and in our finals game for fifth and sixth I scored four goals, which put me in the lead,” he said.

While he has been a top scorer with his former Hawke’s Bay representative team, Smith has never achieved the title at a school tournament.

The sixteen-year-old is a competitive canoe polo player and is also part of Palmerston North Raiders club, where he plays National B Grade.

“I’ve been playing it for quite a long time. It is just fun because a lot of people do it and over the years it has been getting bigger and bigger.”

Canoe polo coach Jason Pearson, also head of physical education at St John’s, said it was great to see the boys finally playingtogether.

“There had been significant disruptions to the programme and the efforts that some players went to was outstanding.

“The growth throughout the tournament for both teams was a testament to working hard off the court and doing the right thing at the time. I’m sure it will be something they cherish for the next few weeks,” Pearson said.