Year 9 and 10 pupils took part in 13 different sports during the annual Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association (OSSSA) Junior Have A Go Week from November 13 to November 17.
This week used to include more traditional summer sports, such as touch and volleyball.
However, over the past couple of years, the week’s true have-a-go focus has led to a move to more minority or non-traditional sports on offer.
The idea behind this transition was to create an opportunity for children to try new sports in a non-competitive environment in the hopes that once they got a taste of the sport, they would choose to seek further opportunities to participate.
A wide range of pupils signed up for the week, from the sporty children keen to give new activities a go with their friends, to those who do not typically sign up to play a sport but are willing to try their hand at some of the non-mainstream sports.
On offer this year were 3x3 basketball, dragon boating, dodgeball, esports, foosball, disc golf, Rippa rugby, ki-o-rahi, darts, renegade hockey, pool, smash 5s cricket and ultimate Frisbee.
Having such a wide range of sports on offer, this mega week of sport registered 1800 involvements from 14 secondary schools all over Otago.
Not only do Dunedin school pupils love participating in this week, but contingents from schools in South Otago and Central Otago travelled daily to Dunedin to attend these events.
Cromwell College used this week as a school sports camp, pupils getting to stay in Dunedin for the week and try out a new sport each day.
Previous years typically had 900 to 1000 involvements across the week.
Last year was the first time the switch was made to include more minority sports compared with the historic traditional summer sports, and it was also the first time the event was completely free for pupils to enter as a result of receiving Tu Manawa Active Aotearoa funding for the entire week.
This led to entries doubling, with 2100 involvements in 2022 and 1800 this year.
The OSSSA connects with regional sporting bodies and clubs for experts to deliver the activities. This creates opportunities for schools and pupils to build relationships with organisations and clubs, and to find out about future opportunities to participate.
The OSSSA is grateful to these organisations for the work they did to ensure this action-packed week of sport was yet again another great success.
