Laney Whitson
Otago Girls’ High School
Year 13 student Laney Whitson is coming to the end of her school years at Otago Girls’. Throughout her five years here, she has participated in a range of sports — football, volleyball, touch and cricket — both competitively and socially.
Laney found that playing sport enabled her to interact with different year levels at school and meet students from year 9 through to year 13, which opened a different circle of friends.
When Laney was a year 9-10 student, she interacted with senior students in her sporting groups, and this enabled her to gain maturity and responsibility to turn up to training sessions and to games. She is thankful for this as it carved the pathway through to her senior years with sport at OGHS.
Laney’s most outstanding achievement to date has been her selection into the New Zealand Māori team. Last year she was named captain, and she was chosen in the team again for 2024.
Laney is sad to be finishing her school sport as it has been a big part of her life for the past five years. It has taught her many life lessons to take with her on the next part of her journey outside high school.
Caleb Darling
Roxburgh Area School
Sports: Rugby, basketball, golf, cricket, touch, volleyball.
Personal value of school sport: Through sport, I have learned key skills such as commitment, discipline and determination. These skills have helped me to achieve my top rugby goal, which was to make the New Zealand Area Schools Barbarians team this year.
I have developed social skills through learning how to communicate with a variety of people, within the school and wider community. School sport has also allowed me to discover myself not only as a sportsperson but as an individual.
What it means to be involved in school sport: I am grateful to Roxburgh Area School for offering so many sporting opportunities, some of which I might not have been able to do had I attended another school. These opportunities have allowed me to take on various leadership roles within our school and have also allowed me to give back some of the things I have learned, through coaching.
