Where are they now?
EMMA SHAW
2012: A veterinary career beckoned for Shaw, a top science pupil who was also a keen horse rider and a southern area schools national netball, basketball and volleyball representative.
2022: Shaw is a mixed practice veterinarian in Mosgiel. She still shows Western horses, and still has the (now retired) games pony she was competing with when she received her Class Act award, as well as a young quarter horse she is breaking in. She also helps her partner train standardbred racehorses. She played netball while at university and rugby afterwards but has since taken up smallbore rifle target shooting instead.
TOM BLACKMORE
2012: A rugby player since the age of 5, Blackmore played at lock for West Otago and was a southern area schools representative. He wanted to be a rural banker.
2022: While his intention was to be a banker in the agriculture sector, Blackmore quickly found his real passion was "on the ground farming". He completed a commerce degree (agriculture) and manages "Marylands", a large-scale, irrigated lamb and beef finishing property in Tarras. In 2019 and 2021, he was runner-up in the Otago-Southland Young Farmer of the Year competitions. Father to a 2-year-old daughter, he played rugby for the Roxburgh and Lawrence clubs until work and family commitments put a halt to sport a couple of years ago.
