There are regular Saturday competitions and a variety of inter-school exchanges across a range of sports.  To see results and fixtures click the appropriate link to the left Besides major sports, boys have the opportunity to partake in many other activities, e.g. surfing, swimming, rowing, cycling, cross-country running, badminton, table tennis, yachting, triathlon, athletics, trap-shooting, squash, golf, volleyball, fencing, etc. Please click the specific link on the left to find out more about a specific sport.

There is a good emphasis on Outdoor Education centred around  a senior snowboarding trip every year and the Hillary Challenge and Get2 Go at an Outdoor Pursuits Centre, The school also makes regular use of Sport Northland's Kensington Complex and the nearby Northland Hockey Association's artificial turf.


 

Athletics

Whangarei Boys’ High School Athletics Sports is one of the major ‘inter-whanau’ events of the year in which all students are encouraged to participate. This event is hotly contested within the schools 5 ‘whanau’ (houses) with the top 2 athletes from each discipline going on to represent the school at the Northland Secondary Schools Athletics. The school typically does well at Northland level with a large number of athletes finishing in the top 3 of their events.

Badminton

In recent years, Whangarei Boys’ High School has completely dominated Northland Secondary Schools Badminton both in numbers and in ability. However, the difficulty in qualifying for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Tournament is having to play and beat the top ranked school in the country at the Regional playoffs!

Basketball

With Tall Blacks captain Pero Cameron being an Old Boy of Whangarei Boys’ High School, it is little wonder that Basketball still has a strong following within the school. The Northland Secondary Schools competition is always challenging but in 2009 the senior team won their competition. Both the junior and Senior teams attended their respective NZ tournament competitions and performed well against some tough opposition.   There are also a number of Northland age group representatives currently attending the school.

Bowls - Indoor/Outdoor

Cricket is easily the School’s largest summer sport, with seven teams regularly involved in Saturday competitions. Indisputably Northland’s top cricket school, we are fortunate to have the services of a professional coach who plays with the 1st XI in the Northland Premier competition and coaches most of our teams. Whangarei Boys’ High won the Premier 55 over competition in 2009. Our 2nd XI and 3rd XI also play in men’s competitions, guided by an adult player

Football

Golf

There are four main events in the school’s golfing calendar.  Early in the year is the qualifying tournament for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Team Championships held in Wellington during Tournament Week.  On College Day the school team takes part in the Northland Inter-Collegiate day.  In Term Three the 36 hole school strokeplay championships are held and towards the end of the year a Junior 27-hole stableford tournament is held.  Where possible other inter-school exchanges are held but these are becoming increasingly difficult to arrange with the increase in Internal Assessment under NCEA.

Hockey

Hockey has a proud history within Northland and also Whangarei Boys’ High School with 4 school teams competing in various competitions in 2009. The schools’ 1st XI plays in the Senior Men’s Reserve Grade Competition finishing 2nd in 2006. The same team also qualified for the Rankin Cup (the top NZSS Tournament) in 2007 by finishing runner up in the India Shield in 2006. Over the years we have produced many Northland and New Zealand age group players.

Rowing

Rowing at WBHS is run in conjunction with the Whangarei Rowing Club. The club provides coaching throughout the year, supported by Mr Gilbert as Manager. The boys train at least once a week, and more often during the Rowing season from October to March. The team participates in a number of regattas locally and at Lake Pupuke in Auckland and Lake Karapiro in the Waikato. In September, boys who wish to start rowing are given a few turns on the water to see if they are interested. We are always in need of smaller boys who have a bit of water sense to be coax (steer the boat). Rowing is a very friendly sport where boys gain good all-round fitness. Have a go. See Mr Gilbert if you are interested.

Rugby

Being New Zealand’s national game, rugby has a proud history at Whangarei Boys’ High and a large number of our students play the game. The school is arguably the strongest rugby school in Northland having at least one team in each grade from JB7 – JB9 and of course our 1st XV who play in the Northland U18 Competition. In the last ten years the 1st XV have consistently finished in the top four, winning in 2006 and coming runners up three times. In 2007 the JB9 won their grade and both the JB8 and JB9 teams making the finals of their respective competitions in 2009. A large number of boys are selected for Northland age group teams, with recent Old Boys Stephen Baker, Matt Clutterbuck and Troy Woodman playing for Northland in the National Provincial Competition. Others have gone on to play for the All Blacks. Some of our more recent ‘Old Boy’ All Blacks include Michael Speight, Norm Maxwell, Norman Berryman and Mark Robinson.

Rugby League

Although Rugby League has a hard task of competing with the schools rugby players the 1st XIII team has historically performed extremely well and produced some export quality players. 2004 saw the team make it through to the 3rd round of the NZ Secondary Schools Knockout Competition eventually losing to Kelston Boys' High. The difficulty in keeping league strong in the school (and indeed Northland) is losing top players to overseas clubs.  Old Boy Adam Blair currently plays for the Melbourne Storm and NZ Kiwis.

Rugby 7’s

Rugby 7’s kicks off with the Northland Secondary Schools Tournament in March, with the top qualifiers going on to represent Northland at the New Zealand Secondary Schools event known as the Condor Sevens. The Whangarei Boys’ High School Rugby always enters a strong team, with the team consistently placing highly. There is strong competition to make the squad with all boys keen to be part of a successful team.

Sailing

Both teams sailing and fleet sailing are becoming real strengths of Whangarei Boys’ High School with many top class sailors attending the school. Competition within Northland is extremely fierce with two of the country’s top schools, Kerikeri and Mahurangi, also being part of the province. The school competes in numerous local and regional regattas throughout the year and also the Teams Racing National Secondary Schools Championship should our top team gain a place at this prestigious event. This year the 1st Sailing Team comprising Joseph Wright, Marcus Hansen, Michael Cate, Cam Clarkson, Casey Clarkson, Sam Brien and Shaun Brown went to Christchurch to sail in the Nationals during the Term 1 holidays. The Championships involved 25 schools from all over New Zealand and they competed over 5 tough days of teams racing. After the round robin events had been completed our team were 3rd equal and went forward into the Gold Fleet. They sailed extremely well in some very competitive races and finished a highly creditable 5th.   At the representative level, Marcus Hansen has been away to two World Championships – the World HobieCat Championships in Brazil and the 420 World Championships in Italy where he came 8th and 12th respectively. Michael Cate has also been away at the World Splash Championships where he came a very creditable 11th, all the more so as he battled gear failure and some very difficult sailing conditions.

Shooting

One of the most competitive and successful teams in the school; winning Team of the Year four times in the past five years. Winners of the NZ Fish & Game Northland round for the past four years, winners of the Hamilton and Thames School shoots for the past two years and winners of the NZ Secondary Schools Point Score in 2007 & 2008 making them National Champions.  Ethan Erceg (also NSSSA Sportsman of the Year & member of the NZ Open Mens McIntosh Team in 2008), Matthew King, Hayden Coote, Josh Wilson, Logan Rankin, Hugh McKenzie, & Tim Mannion are all NZ Reps.  There are 5 members to each team and we are always looking for new shooters.

Snow Boarding

Squash

The squash team is a relatively young side with great potential that has a number of Northland age rep players. This year the team is looking in great shape to repeat or better previous successes. The inter-school tournaments attended include the Northland Secondary Schools in late July and the NZ Secondary Schools in mid August In 2010 this will be held in Christchurch

Swimming

Along with the school athletics sports, the inter-whanau swimming sports involve the whole school over a full day of events. There are events for everyone, including flipper relays, tube rescue relays and underwater events through to the championship events. From this, a group of swimmers are selected to represent the school at the Northland Secondary Schools Association (NSSSA) meet, typically held in the Bay of Islands. Historically we have a number of quality club swimmers who perform well at the NSSSA event and pick up a number of top 3 placings.

Tennis

Another code which WBHS dominates in numbers and ability. School Tennis begins towards the end of March with the Inter-whanau competition, with the Northland Secondary Schools tournament typically held the following week. The school has a good number of students who attend this tournament and also the junior tournament held towards the end of the year. At the start of this year, a couple of sessions per week during lunch times were introduced to encourage junior and senior tennis players to increase their match practice and to start a ladder at the school.

Touch

The Senior WBHS Touch team has historically been one of the schools top performing sides at Northland, Regional and National level. To even qualify for the New Zealand Secondary School competition is a hard task, having to first win the Northland Secondary Schools title and then place in the top 2 at the Zone Tournament against leading Auckland and North Harbour Schools. The team has qualified to attend the last 5 National Tournaments. The Senior team continues to perform strongly and has once again qualified for the Nationals later this year. The Junior team was placed first at this year’s Northland Secondary Schools which augurs well for the future of Touch at Whangarei Boys’ High School.

Triathlon

Volleyball

Being one of the schools (and Northlands) developing sports, Volleyball is a great sport option for many of our students. Also during summer, there is now much competition in beach volleyball with both competitive and social events being hosted throughout Northland and the rest of the country.  In 2009 the school fielded one senior side with many juniors keen to be involved in the second half of the year. From humble beginnings, WBHS Volleyball continues to go from strength to strength.

Waka Ama

Currently the school has many top paddlers attending who compete at local, national and even international events. WBHS has sent teams to the New Zealand Secondary Schools regattas for the last 3 years where they have been very competitive, particularly in 2004 and 2005 where they won National Titles.

House (or Whanau) System

On arrival at WBHS each boy is assigned to a Whanau group, the groups are called: Grey, Hobson, Marsden, Bledisloe and Carruth. All boarders are assigned to Carruth Whanau (along with some day boys). A very hotly contested Inter-Whanau competition takes place throughout a very busy year. Swimming, Athletics, Basketball, Indoor Hockey, 7-a-side Rugby, Iron-man, Cross-country, Music, Speeches, Maori Culture, Tennis and Academic endeavour all contribute points.

Sport Coordinator / Sponsorship Coordinator

Rod Cunliffe Email: mailto:r.cunliffe@wbhs.school.nz Phone: 64 9 430 4170 ext. 750