Touch Tournament: 

Our Senior Girls' and Senior Boys' Touch teams both reached the semi-finals of the Zone Champs, which were held at Waitakere College last week.

Sadly, yes again, I was overseas and missed this and was unable to get photos.

Both teams narrowly lost their play-offs in most dramatic fashion. Both teams were superbly managed and coached by Mr Taura and Whaea Karamea, and both teams played with pride, passion, flair, determination and good sportsmanship.

Karamea's Report on the Girls' Team:

Another tournament where you'd be so proud of our kids representing Western Heights. The sportsmanship, talent and pride they showed on and off the field really highlighted the respect they have for their school values.

The team consisted of Aliana, Alamein, Sophia, Hani, Lauryn, Katalina, Asia, Sapphire, Leah, Mineva, Scarlett, Malayah and our amazing captain, Iona. Every girl played a huge part in getting us to the semi-finals with two wins and two draws in our Pool games. Unfortunately, two disallowed tries in our semi-final against Summerland meant we missed getting to the finals, losing 1-0. The girls were a little disheartened, but I was so proud of how they picked themselves up by encouraging each other and reminding themselves to have fun regardless of the results.

We played Ranui for 3rd and 4th, again refs disallowed two tries, we finished 4th losing 1-0 again. Smiles all round though, and girls kept on saying what an awesome day they had, and to me, made them the winners in my eyes.

Iona was our leading try scorer, four counted tries and three disallowed tries. Leah was next for scoring three tries, and Alamein and Aliana were just awesome on defense, shutting the other teams' plays down and getting us back the ball quickly. Katalina and Sapphire were absolute stars on the wing with their quick legs, side-stepping the opposition and getting a try each.

We were extremely proud of Sophia, Hani, Asia, Malayah, Scarlett, Lauryn and Mineva for picking up the game so quickly; their hunger and hard work to get involved helped set up tries.