The Whanganui Secondary Schools Sports Awards, organised by Sport Whanganui in collaboration with 10 schools across the Whanganui region, were unfortunately cancelled in 2020 and 2021.
It was a difficult decision to make, but the Covid-19 climate made the gatherings too complex to proceed. Students, like the greater community, have experienced the challenges of a Covid-19 world. The Secondary School Sports Awards cancellation has been one of many sports and sport-related cancellations in the past two and a half years since the pandemic began. We caught up with several school students, who were recipients of school-based sports awards this year, to find out how they managed the uncertainty of their sporting world and the tools they used to build resilience.
Between them, secondary school students Margaret Hazelhurst, Paris Munro, Hunter Gibson, and Jordyn Leiasamaivao-Turvey participate in more than 17 sports. This is a massive commitment to their schools, clubs, and of course, themselves. Despite the variety of sports codes and the high level of competition, all four agree: sport is about enjoyment, friends made and the personal challenge. Over the past two and a half years those challenges have become more testing with lockdowns, and restrictions to travel and gatherings. A key part of the new challenge to competing on the sports field, court, open road, or water, has been developing the resilience to stay passionate and connected to the love of sport.
Margaret Hazelhurst.
Margaret Hazelhurst, a senior student at Whanganui Collegiate school, was awarded the Morison Cup — for best all-round sportspersons alongside Shaun O'Leary, and the William Williams Memorial Trophy for her warm concern for others, good humour, and willingness to serve. Margaret's main sports are rowing and hockey, with running and football featuring too. Margie has competed in 105 hockey games for the Collegiate school First 11 hockey team.
Margaret describes the impact on her and her friends: "From the first lockdown it was quite a big impact because we were training for Maadi Cup and going hardcore and that's when the first cases came out in the news. When we were training, we would say 'imagine if Maadi got cancelled'? We thought that would never happen. The next thing we knew Covid-19 came to NZ and Maadi was cancelled a few weeks before the event. We had been training so hard and we were gutted."
Margaret's training for the hockey season was about to start when lockdown began, so trials and training were postponed. Once the season did get started, the much-anticipated Federation Cup, a national school hockey event, was the team's goal, and the same misfortune came knocking when the Fed Cup was also cancelled. How did Margaret manage the ongoing disruption?
"I tried to focus on each day not what might happen in the future, because that could impact your training and the result if things do go ahead. Everyone is going through this too, so just roll with the changes. You get knocked down but get up again. You can't control whether we'd go into another lockdown, you can't write a letter to Jacinda."
Paris Munro.
Paris Munro, a senior student from Whanganui High School, has played all her sports, except for rugby, at a high level for five years at the school, earning her school colours in basketball, athletics, cross-country and football. No mean feat. Paris is also head of sport and was awarded Sport Dux in 2021. As head of sport, Paris has had the responsibility of organising school sports days throughout the year and a fun run to raise funds for a much-loved injured teacher.
The pandemic has made participating in sport patchy and unpredictable; Paris explains her experience:
"It's been hard to be motivated because you can't meet up with your teammates. You have to get out of bed and get on with it yourself, getting the motivation to do it when everything's been cancelled. For me, I've had three national events cancelled so I didn't have anything to look forward to anymore. I think a lot of people would feel the same way. During lockdown, I felt inactive, just eating, and felt yuck because I wasn't getting exercise. I wrote a list of things to do each day to make myself a programme. That worked until I got back to school! It's really a mental game, that one."
Hunter Gibson.
Hunter Gibson understands all too well the mental game of pushing on despite setbacks. A student at Whanganui Collegiate School, Hunter has pushed on with triathlon training, hockey, and road cycle racing despite the disappointment of significant cancellations. Hunter received the High Performance Sport Programme Award for international representation in triathlon.
Hunter describes his challenges and disappointments:
"I've made two NZ world triathlon teams over the last two years which I haven't been able to go to because of travel restrictions. I've focused on individual disciplines like swimming, running and cycling, and set my own goals and tried to play a range of different sports to have fun and not lose interest in sport. It's hard to keep going while we're not competing. School coach Mr Wright has stuck with me and helped me make my own goals to be ready to compete when I get the opportunity. The school has been great at recognising its sports participants which is great."
Jordyn Leiasamaivao, a student of Whanganui High School, has won more than eight sports awards, from school awards to national awards including Mrs Robinson's Cup for Boys' Sport Dux Ludorum. He plays beach and indoor volleyball, rugby, basketball, and touch rugby. Jordyn has given his all to his sports with a full commitment to games and training. He loves the challenge and the leadership gained through sport but most importantly for him, is gaining lifelong friends. Like Margaret, Paris and Hunter, the cancelled tournaments and tours have had a real impact and training solo has also been a challenge. Once tournaments could take place, Jordyn found there was something missing:
"When the alert levels changed and tournaments could take place, we were missing the spectators, support atmosphere and simple things like shaking the opponent's hand and encouraging one another."
But the upside is the gratitude. All the students conveyed gratitude for the support from school, coaches and teammates.
"I am grateful for having access to the use of the school gym and facilities for training and games. Also, the awesome coaches and managers who volunteer their time, commitment and knowledge to our teams."
To all our youth, the unnamed award winners, those who participate in their sport for the sheer fun of it, and to youth struggling with the new normal: hold fast to the joy of life and remember, as testified to by Margaret, Paris, Hunter and Jordyn, the beauty of sport is the fun and friendship we have along the way, and the connections we build with others.
