Post by petersharp on Sept 26, 2006 10:17:12 GMT 12
On Saturday and Sunday I watched the finals of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Badminton Championships; yesterday I went out to QEII in Christchurch to see the first day of six at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Basketball Championships. These were three days of outstanding sporting competition for young athletes from secondary schools all over the country. They are just three days of many on the New Zealand Secondary Schools Sports Council’s [NZSSSC] sporting calendar and they illustrate perfectly how sports groups can work with NZSSSC to provide high quality sporting opportunities for student athletes.
Why are they such a good illustration of the way sport at secondary school works? In both, the organisation responsible for the event was the National Sports Organisation, Badminton NZ and Basketball NZ respectively; in both, the NSO was assisted by their local sports organisations [RSOs], Badminton Canterbury and Canterbury Basketball Association; in both, officials volunteered their time to provide a top quality service; in both, schools had qualified through zone and regional tournaments for the right to be at the ‘nationals’; in both, school principals were proud to send their teams, (players, teacher and community coaches and management staff, parents and grandparents); in both the young people were highly skilled, impressively turned out and well behaved – they looked as if they appreciated the opportunity and were enjoying the experience. It was an excellent illustration of all the stakeholders, sports, schools and families, working together for the benefit of their young people.
What is the role of NZSSSC in all this? It is not by chance that these events are scheduled at this time; it is school holidays – next week the NZ SS Netball Nationals will be held in Blenheim, also in the holidays and not clashing with Basketball so that girls, if their school has qualified, may compete in both. The timing suits the schools and the timing and the venue suits Badminton NZ because it leads neatly into the age group nationals in Christchurch this week.
This year there are 159 national or island events on the NZSSSC Calendar; these have to be scheduled into dates and venues that are suitable for the sports and that fit the schools’ needs; in particular, we need to be sure that their academic programmes are interrupted as little as possible. We need also to check that venues are available and that accommodation, sometimes for hundreds of people, is accessible. For example, in 2007 the Upper North Island Netball Championships are scheduled for Whangarei; as soon as that was confirmed Sport Northland advised that the netball teams would capture all the available accommodation and, as a result, NZSSSC had to let all other NSOs know that, for 2007 at least, Whangarei was not available as a venue for them.
I am in the final stages of preparing the calendar for 2007; I need to do it now so that schools can be advised by the start of Term 4 so that, in turn, they can plan their other commitments, confident that they have taken account of any sporting events that they may wish to be involved in. They need certainty in this and they need it well before the end of the school year. This means I have to make NSOs aware of the needs and expectations of the schools so that they can satisfy that imperative.
There are 4 new events on the secondary school sports national and island calendar for next year. One of these is a good case study of how NZSSSC can assist sports groups and I will use this as an anonymous model.
For some years a regional group had conducted an adventure race for local young people, not only those in schools. The organisers talked to the regional secondary schools sports directors [RSD] - we have these in every region in the country, mostly in the Regional Sports Trusts; check with them - about the possibility of widening the event to include all of the North Island schools. The RSD suggested contact with me. We discussed it; there were a couple of issues that we had to work through but we started in the understanding that we would keep working at these until we had them sorted. Within a couple of months we had agreement, we had the support of the NSO, (in this case Mountain Safety Council appeared to be the most appropriate and they were happy to be involved), and the event will be presented next year as a sanctioned North Island Secondary Schools event.
NZSSSC works with national and island event organisers; the same model can apply, equally effectively, at a regional level. As I said above, there are RSDs in every region; their role is to promote sporting and physical activity amongst young people in secondary schools. They are available to assist all RSOs to get their sport to these young people. Like NZSSSC on the national level, the RSDs are the bridge between sports and schools at the local and regional level. Please use them, and NZSSSC; together we can provide even more and better sporting opportunities for the young people who are so important to our sporting and societal future.
The list of RSDs can be downloaded from the NZSSSC website www.nzsssc.org.nz Secondary Schools Sports Data/ Regional Secondary Schools Sports Administrators [RSDs] 2006.
If you would like to be added to our Newsletter distribution list please subscribe from www.nzsssc.org.nz Newsletters/Subscribe.
If you would like a hard copy of the NZSSSC Sports Directory when it is printed in January, please let me know. We send copies to NSOs and hope that the RSOs can access them from RSDs but if you are missing out, we’ll be happy to make sure that you have one – or some!
If you have any queries or comment please contact me at any time
Executive Director: Peter Sharp
Postal Address : PO Box 36005
Merivale
Christchurch 8146
New Zealand
Phone : +64 274 332 438
Fax : +64 3 355 9656
Email : nzsssc@xtra.co.nz
Why are they such a good illustration of the way sport at secondary school works? In both, the organisation responsible for the event was the National Sports Organisation, Badminton NZ and Basketball NZ respectively; in both, the NSO was assisted by their local sports organisations [RSOs], Badminton Canterbury and Canterbury Basketball Association; in both, officials volunteered their time to provide a top quality service; in both, schools had qualified through zone and regional tournaments for the right to be at the ‘nationals’; in both, school principals were proud to send their teams, (players, teacher and community coaches and management staff, parents and grandparents); in both the young people were highly skilled, impressively turned out and well behaved – they looked as if they appreciated the opportunity and were enjoying the experience. It was an excellent illustration of all the stakeholders, sports, schools and families, working together for the benefit of their young people.
What is the role of NZSSSC in all this? It is not by chance that these events are scheduled at this time; it is school holidays – next week the NZ SS Netball Nationals will be held in Blenheim, also in the holidays and not clashing with Basketball so that girls, if their school has qualified, may compete in both. The timing suits the schools and the timing and the venue suits Badminton NZ because it leads neatly into the age group nationals in Christchurch this week.
This year there are 159 national or island events on the NZSSSC Calendar; these have to be scheduled into dates and venues that are suitable for the sports and that fit the schools’ needs; in particular, we need to be sure that their academic programmes are interrupted as little as possible. We need also to check that venues are available and that accommodation, sometimes for hundreds of people, is accessible. For example, in 2007 the Upper North Island Netball Championships are scheduled for Whangarei; as soon as that was confirmed Sport Northland advised that the netball teams would capture all the available accommodation and, as a result, NZSSSC had to let all other NSOs know that, for 2007 at least, Whangarei was not available as a venue for them.
I am in the final stages of preparing the calendar for 2007; I need to do it now so that schools can be advised by the start of Term 4 so that, in turn, they can plan their other commitments, confident that they have taken account of any sporting events that they may wish to be involved in. They need certainty in this and they need it well before the end of the school year. This means I have to make NSOs aware of the needs and expectations of the schools so that they can satisfy that imperative.
There are 4 new events on the secondary school sports national and island calendar for next year. One of these is a good case study of how NZSSSC can assist sports groups and I will use this as an anonymous model.
For some years a regional group had conducted an adventure race for local young people, not only those in schools. The organisers talked to the regional secondary schools sports directors [RSD] - we have these in every region in the country, mostly in the Regional Sports Trusts; check with them - about the possibility of widening the event to include all of the North Island schools. The RSD suggested contact with me. We discussed it; there were a couple of issues that we had to work through but we started in the understanding that we would keep working at these until we had them sorted. Within a couple of months we had agreement, we had the support of the NSO, (in this case Mountain Safety Council appeared to be the most appropriate and they were happy to be involved), and the event will be presented next year as a sanctioned North Island Secondary Schools event.
NZSSSC works with national and island event organisers; the same model can apply, equally effectively, at a regional level. As I said above, there are RSDs in every region; their role is to promote sporting and physical activity amongst young people in secondary schools. They are available to assist all RSOs to get their sport to these young people. Like NZSSSC on the national level, the RSDs are the bridge between sports and schools at the local and regional level. Please use them, and NZSSSC; together we can provide even more and better sporting opportunities for the young people who are so important to our sporting and societal future.
The list of RSDs can be downloaded from the NZSSSC website www.nzsssc.org.nz Secondary Schools Sports Data/ Regional Secondary Schools Sports Administrators [RSDs] 2006.
If you would like to be added to our Newsletter distribution list please subscribe from www.nzsssc.org.nz Newsletters/Subscribe.
If you would like a hard copy of the NZSSSC Sports Directory when it is printed in January, please let me know. We send copies to NSOs and hope that the RSOs can access them from RSDs but if you are missing out, we’ll be happy to make sure that you have one – or some!
If you have any queries or comment please contact me at any time
Executive Director: Peter Sharp
Postal Address : PO Box 36005
Merivale
Christchurch 8146
New Zealand
Phone : +64 274 332 438
Fax : +64 3 355 9656
Email : nzsssc@xtra.co.nz