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Sporting Achievements

Our students share how our teachers and coaches have enhanced their skills and enabled them to be successful in achieving their sporting goals.

Darcy Spark

Throughout my time at Rangitoto College, my days have consisted of lots of academic work and hours of training every morning and night.  The support I have received from the Rangitoto staff has been one of the reasons why I am succeeding in my sport today and in my studies.  Playing water polo at a high level means that my week consists of up to 10 trainings a week, ranging from 2-6 hours a night.  This includes gym training, swim sessions, water polo skill training and often weekend camps for New Zealand level teams consisting of high-intensity training.  The support from the school has been amazing, whether it be catch-up sessions for specific subjects, extensions when needed or even the occasional dean meeting to check on my wellbeing and progress in my chosen sport.  Premier water polo at Rangitoto College has been a wonderful experience for my teammates and me.  We went from winning 3 silver medals in 2021 to making an immense improvement and winning a gold medal at the Premier National tournament in 2022!  This tournament was definitely a highlight of my school water polo career as it was the first gold medal Rangitoto had won in water polo for 10 years.  I was also honoured to be named MVP of the tournament which made this win even more thrilling.

I have been competing for North Harbour Water Polo for 8 years now and love every minute of it!  I am also part of the New Zealand womens’ squad and was lucky enough to be selected to attend the Youth World Water Polo Championships in Serbia in July 2022. I would say that being a part of these squads is my proudest achievement in my water polo career so far.  My goal for next year is to gain a scholarship at a university in the USA for water polo to continue my water polo career as well as further my academic studies. I have been talking to a few universities.  In the future, attending the Olympics would be the pinnacle of my water polo career but without the support and care of the Rangitoto college staff and teammates, none of this would be possible.

Ryan Jefferson

While attending Rangitoto College, I have received a huge amount of support and help in order for me to achieve my sporting and academic goals. Throughout my sporting career, I have had to try and balance school work, training and national and international tournaments. The principal, deans and teachers have all encouraged and helped me to manage my sporting and school commitments. Although I spend a lot of time out of the classroom, my teachers and deans have helped me keep on track with my work.

During my sporting history, at Rangitoto in Year 9 I competed and came 1st in synchronised trampoline and 2nd in individual trampoline at the Australian National Championships. Later that year I qualified and competed at the World Championships in Tokyo 2019, coming 4th in synchronised trampoline. I then started to pursue my volleyball career, coming 2nd with my Rangitoto indoor team at Auckland Championships. I came 2nd at Beach Volleyball School Nationals in year 11 alongside my North Harbour team placing 1st for U17 Indoor Volleyball IPC and being named in the tournament team. This year I played and came 1st at the Australian Beach Volleyball U18 Nationals. I recently qualified as one of four U19 players and competed for New Zealand in Thailand for the Beach Volleyball Asian Championships, helping me develop my skills for future competitions.

I have been offered the opportunity to compete and train in Switzerland from July to the end of August for beach volleyball. I will be attending camps as well as tournaments throughout the country and hopefully other places in Europe. As this will involve a lot of time off school, I have really appreciated all of the support I have received from Rangitoto College to ensure I’m in the best place possible to achieve academically in NCEA Level 2.

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