A quick tip of the hat, however, seems fair for the Queen’s High School footballers.
They have had a whale of a season and capped it off nicely by finishing 12th at the New Zealand premier secondary schoolgirls tournament in Nelson last week.
Southern schools historically find the going extremely tough at elite football tournaments, dominated as they are by North Island schools and, often, private institutions with far greater resources.
St Andrew’s College were the only other South Island team in the top 16 at the tournament.
Queen’s started with losses to Baradene College (3-0) and Hillcrest Hill School (5-3) before wins over Palmerston North Girls’ High School (5-1) and Otumoetai College (3-2). They finished with one-goal losses to St Kentigern, Epsom Girls’ Grammar and Napier Girls’.
Midfielder Yui Ishikawa was named Queen’s MVP of the tournament, picked by opposition coaches.
Queen’s had sailed through local football this season unbeaten with a rather ridiculous record of 90 goals scored and precisely zero conceded.
They beat Columba 2-0 in the local final. Columba also went to the New Zealand tournament, where they placed 22nd.
Both Charlotte Summers and Claudia Haig scored more than 20 goals for Queen’s this season.
The future looks bright, too, as all of the Queen’s players are returning next year — in fact, 11 of the 16-strong squad are in year 9 or 10.
Good teams require good coaching, and the South Dunedin school has impeccable guidance from Southern United defender and Queen’s teacher Hannah Mackay-Wright with support from long-serving women’s coach Graeme Smaill.
Two Dunedin schools were represented at the elite secondary schoolboys tournament. John McGlashan and Otago Boys’ finished 18th and 20th respectively.
