Rutherford College held its annual sports awards evening on Friday, 18 October. The night was a celebration of both individual and team performances throughout the year. It was a successful evening showing various talents.

The night began with another top-notch performance from our Kapa Haka before Mr Matai’a took over to say words of thanks and a special mention for Gill, who wasn’t able to make it but put in a lot of background work in advance of the evening. Mr Matai’a then took the opportunity to introduce our Guest Speaker for the evening. We had the honour of having Anna Willcox, an Olympic freestyle skier and reporter for the TV show “The Crowd Goes Wild”.

At 18 Anna discovered her passion and talent for slopestyle skiing. Within the short space of a few years, Anna was on the world tour circuit competing across the globe. She landed on her first world cup podium in Sierra Nervada, Spain in 2013 and qualified for the 2014 Sochi, Russia Winter Olympic Games and ranking 7th in the world. Anna talked about her rollercoaster life between injuries and setbacks, and the various fun, exciting and painful, adventures she has had.

It was a full house with students receiving awards, parents there celebrating their successes and the coaches/volunteers who make it all possible. Our MC Neil Waka got the night off to a great start as always, providing a humorous and uplifting atmosphere for the evening.

We began the evening congratulating the achievements of our students for the Most Valuable players, Most Consistent and Play of the Years for each individual sporting code. After a great speech from our sports captains, and some tasty dessert we moved onto the individual awards, starting by congratulating our representative awards for competing in sports at Zonal, Regional and National level.

The evening ended with the presentation of the elite awards:
Junior Sportswoman – Ocearn Mathews
Junior Sportsman – Sebastyan Jack
Junior Outstanding Achievement – Maggie Collis (Diving)
Team of the Year – 1st XI Boys Football Team
Coach of the Year – Mr Kevin Greaney
Sports Coordinators Award, Service and Contribution – Mr Charlie Cartwright
Senior Sportsman – Harrison Chapman
Senior Sportswoman – Mollie Tagaola
Senior Outstanding Achievement – Odessa Lawson (Basketball)
Dux – Mollie Tagaloa

The sports department would like to express their massive thanks to all of the coaches, managers, officials and volunteers – as without their support, help and dedication the sports within Rutherford College wouldn’t be as successful. Other thanks go to the parents and caregivers of the athletes, without your drive and support behind these athletes they wouldn’t be able to do reach these levels.

We hope everyone had an enjoyable year in their sports, representing Rutherford with pride. We hope to see you all again next year.

We wish the Year 13s success and they will definitely be missed.