In the other field events, the Throw for Gold athletes will all feature strongly, especially shot putter Maddison Wesche of Lynfield, profiled recently in College Sport.
We will bring you a full review of the event in next week's College Sport.
Condors 7s
The NZ Secondary School sevens finals, commonly known as the Condor Sevens, will take place from Friday to Sunday at Kelston Boys' High School.
This is the 29th tournament for the Condors, an event made famous by the late Jonah Lomu, who played for Wesley College in the early years. This year's event will have a minute's silence and video montage before the boys' and girls' open finals to pay respect to Lomu.
Almost 70 schools will compete over the three days, which is unprecedented. On Friday, the North Island U15 competition will take place, followed by the boys and girls open competition on the Sunday. Live coverage will screen on Sky Sport's Rugby Channel from 12pm on the Sunday with highlight programmes shown the following week on Sky Sport 1 and 2.
Defending champions Hamilton GHS and Rotorua BHS will be out to defend their titles.
Out of the 2014 tournament, Rotorua BHS star Isaac Te Aute kicked on to play some superb rugby and helped his First XV win the national Top 4 in September, while his teammate Latu Vaeno appeared for Taranaki in the ITM Cup.
MAGS won the Auckland title again a few weeks ago and have NZ Schools threequarter Caleb Clarke in the ranks as one to watch, along with fellow speedster Niven Longopoa, who won the athletics category at the ASB Young Sportsperson of the Year awards, but will forego the Timaru schools athletics nationals to play at the Condors Sevens.
Kelston will be joined by Sacred Heart in the open boys' grade, while MAGS, Otahuhu and Southern Cross make up the Auckland numbers in the girls' division.
Follow all the action at https://www.facebook.com/condorsevens
Football
Waikato Bay of Plenty football development officer Peter Smith is the new director of football at Mt Albert Grammar School. Smith will oversee all of MAGS' football programme, including the Year 9 and 10 boys' and girls' football academies, and the 22 teams the school fields each season. MAGS has one of the largest high school football programmes in the country, with around 320 students taking part this season.
Smith has spent the past eight years with Waikato Bay of Plenty Football as development manager, head coach of its Youth squad and, since 2013, head coach of its ASB National Premiership squad. He was also the NZ Football national talent centre coach from 2010-2013.
Rugby
Adrian Choat, an 18-year-old flanker from Liston College, is the inaugural winner of the $30,000 Royal Wolf Rugby Tertiary Scholarship.
Choat plans to study engineering at the University of Auckland.
The scholarship, valued at $10,000 a year for three years, was negotiated with Royal Wolf, New Zealand's leading shipping container firm, by the Auckland Rugby Union Supporters' Club Junior Rugby Foundation. It will be awarded annually to Auckland secondary school leavers to commit to the Auckland union. Choat plays his club rugby for Waitemata and was in the Liston First XV this year.
At last week's announcement in the clubrooms of the Barbarians at Eden Park, by Royal Wolf's New Zealand manager, Paul Creighton, the foundation's chairman Barry Hodge said it was a historic occasion in that it takes the long-standing support by the Supporters Club to a new level, a virtual "Rhodes scholarship" of rugby. For many years, the foundation has awarded bursaries of $500 each to 15 top Auckland secondary school players to help them through their final years of schooling.
The full list of bursary winners for 2015 is: Milan Bonkovich (MAGS), Brandon Boyle (Macleans), Adrian Choat (Liston), Connor Etting (Liston), Wiseguy Faiane (Auckland Grammar), Zac King (MAGS), Matt McKenzie (Auckland Grammar), Siope Ngata (Aorere), Gibson Popoali'i (De La Salle), Antonio Ripata (Auckland Grammar), Samuel Slade (MAGS), Julius Togafau (Edgewater), TJ Vaega (Kelston BHS), Ian Vermeulen (Macleans).
Ngata and Vaega were both profiled in College Sport this year.
