Principal’s Alumni Notes

In previous Alumni Newsletters I have shared with you the roll growth of the school – now sitting at 1800 students and planned to grow to 3,300 students some time during the 2030’s.  What I think you may be interested in is the growth in sport that has accompanied this roll growth. I’ll start off with a question – “What is the sport with the largest number of participants in NZ?” Everyone I’ll bet knows the answer – NETBALL! Indicative of that huge level of participation I can share with you that this year Springs/Waiōrea has 17 Netball teams playing in the School Sport competition and for the first time EVER we have TWO teams in the prem. A division. The ‘big dogs’, in terms of top Netball schools have a team in the prems. and here we are with TWO!!! Go Springs! Our second biggest participation sport at Springs? Any guesses? Sure enough – BASKETBALL, with 13 teams. Our beautiful new gym helps explain some of that along with NBA coverage from the US and scholarship opportunities over there. Our third biggest participation sport is FOOTBALL (soccer) with 7 teams taking to the fields every week.

As a school we are taking this great opportunity with such huge numbers of students participating to introduce some professional coaching and partnerships with clubs to get the very best out of our teams. This will also establish clear and logical pathways for students in the local primary and intermediate schools to come to Springs knowing their club associations and professional coaches will have their backs.

This is a long term project to develop the reputation of Springs on the sportsfields as being equal to or better than our traditional competitor schools. Come on down and watch the teams in action.

Ivan Davis
Principal