Champion of Champions: Boys Teams of the Year

What if we had a Halberg award for the best College sports team during the year. Who would win? Normally in school sport it is relatively easy to find the top team within a code, but can you pick who has achieved more, when comparing codes?
 
Christchurch Boys’ High School Rowing Eight - Christchurch have been leading contenders to win the eight at the Maadi Cup for several years, but until April 2019 a win had remained elusive. It was the intention of the Christchurch crew to lead from the outset, but they slipped behind a determined Christ’s College. However Christchurch rallied and scored an inspiring victory. The full crew was:  Scott Shackleton, Tom Fraser, Cameron Long, Ethan Alderlieste, Cameron Henderson, Angus Templeton, James Glover, Ben Brown and Tim Heritage. In addition to the Maadi Cup, Christchurch rowers won an additional seven gold medals at the regatta. Won the Most outstanding team award at the Canterbury school sports Zonta Awards recently.
 
Hastings Boys' High School First XV Rugby - For the second time in three years, Hastings won the National Top Four championship when they defeated King's College, Auckland 27-14 in the final. Unlike 2017 (when Hastings was unbeaten) the 2019 class did it the hard way. After six consecutive wins in the Super 8, Hastings was beaten in consecutive weekends by Hamilton Boys' High School to finish second. Hastings recovered to thrash St Patrick’s College, Silverstream (37-10) and Palmerston North Boys' High School (45-15) to capture the Hurricanes Regional title and set up a rematch with Hamilton at Nationals. Remarkably Hamilton stumbled at this stage of the season for a second year in a row by a point, propelling Hastings into their third National final in four years. In wet, cold and windy conditions, Hastings led from start to finnish in clinically defeating the Blues Regional champions. Hastings overall record in 2019 was 18-3, but remarkably they didn’t have a single selection in the New Zealand Schools’ team which lost to Australia. Hastings success shows little sign of slowing. They also won National Under 15 title, defeating Hamilton in the final.

King’s High School First XI Hockey - The King's High School First XI became the first team from Otago to win the Rankin Cup, defeating Timaru Boys' High School 2-0 in the final, after beating Saint Kentigern College 5-3 (1-1 at fulltime) in a semi-final penalty shootout. Inconceivably King's lost two local games this season, the first time that’s happened in many years! It proved to be a wakeup call the team needed, building a defensive fortress that only conceded four goals at Nationals. A Rankin Cup title was great reward for Dave Ross who has been coaching at King’s for 30 years and exceptional captain Ethan Booth.
 
Mount Albert Grammar School Senior Squash - The MAGS Premier Squash team made history when they won the National Secondary Schools title for the first time in Tauranga. MAGS had lost to Auckland Grammar School in the decider nine years, but reversed that result by defeating hosts and defending champions Tauranga Boys’ College in the final. MAGS only dropped one of 24 games in the whole tournament. The full squad was: Max Conder, Mason Smales, Tarin Love, Jack Conder (Captain), Arnd Arelmann, Jaeswen Kwan and Hasan Pathan. Coach Michael Blanchard was in the MAGS team that lost to Auckland Grammar
 
Sacred Heart College First XI Football - Sacred Heart may have lost their vice like grip on the Auckland Premiership, but their true class was evident in September when they held their nerve to beat Auckland Grammar School 2-1 in extra time in the National final and later added the Auckland Knockout Cup to their trophy cabinet. The telling strike in Sacred Heart's fifth national title in the past nine years was a penalty in the first-half of extra time by Riwai Stanton. Campbell Strong was a standout in the final, and he went on to win the College Sport Auckland Football award last week.

Saint Kentigern College Basketball - St Kent’s won their first National title, ending Rosmini’s stranglehold on the crown. A powerhouse performance by Shalom Broughton (24 points and 23 rebounds) broke open a close final in the final two quarters. Broughton was the tournament MVP, while Alex McNaught and Levick Kerr both also made the tournament team. St Kent’s had hinted they were national championship quality earlier in the season when they reached the Auckland final, narrowly losing to Rangitoto College by three points before reversing that result in the Zone I decider. St Kent’s have been coached for some time by Aaron Jones. 

Sacred Heart College First XI Football - Sacred Heart may have lost their vice like grip on the Auckland Premiership, but their true class was evident in September when they held their nerve to beat Auckland Grammar School 2-1 in extra time in the National final and later added the Auckland Knockout Cup to their trophy cabinet. The telling strike in Sacred Heart's fifth national title in the past nine years was a penalty in the first-half of extra time by Riwai Stanton. Campbell Strong was a standout in the final, and he went on to win the College Sport Auckland Football award last week.
 
Tauranga Boys’ College, Underwater Hockey - Won a three-peat of NZSS Underwater Hockey titles at the national tournament in Wellington in September. With three U19 Men’s team world champion players in their squad in Thomas Holdom (year 12), Aidan Heath (year 12) and Zac Howe (year 13) Tauranga Boys’ College won a tense final over Glendowie Cowie 2-1 after leading 1-0 at halftime. They also had wins over Glendowie (2-0), Mahurangi College (8-0), Hutt International Boys’ School (4-1), Nelson College (4-1) and Howick College (3-1) en route to the final. Unlike the previous two years, Tauranga also won the national title after not winning the North Island tournament, finishing runners-up to Howick College.

Wellington College First XI Cricket - For the first time since 1996 a school from the capital became National champions after a dramatic run in Christchurch in December 2018. Wellington lost the local final to Hutt International Boys' School, but reversed that result in the regional decider before winning four out of five games at the Lincoln University turf. Wellington outplayed 2017 winners Christchurch Boys' High School, but most dramatically took four wickets for a single run to stun Auckland champions, King's College. Dylan Sharma, Harry Hunter and Tim Robinson were in the top four leading wicket takers at Nationals while the team also featured head prefect Ollie Petersen. Wellington have requalified for the 2019 Nationals in December.
 
The annual College Sport Media Champion of Champion series is not intended to be a definitive list of the ‘best’ athletes in each code, rather it celebrates many of the leading athletes and teams in each that College Sport Media has followed this year. Preference has gone to those individuals/teams that CSM has interviewed and profiled in 2019. Got a story? Email editor@collegesportmedia.com