Northwest Sports Meeting Term 3 2026


Meeting opened: 3:32 pm


Present: Birdwood, Colwill, Helensville, Marina View, Massey, Matua Ngaru, Parakai, Riverhead, Royal Road, Scott Point, Swanson, Taupaki, Waimauku, Waioneke, Waitakere, West Harbour

Apologies: Michelle (Hobsonville Point), Cara (Swanson), Joe, (Huapai), Gavin (Don Buck), Luke (Woodhill), Anna (Kaukapakapa)

Presentations: ARL,

  • Reminder that our first Rugby league festival will be taking place on Wednesday 2 September. Entry cut off will now be week 5 to allow for schools and ARL to get organised. There will be 2 divisions on the day. A restricted grade and an open grade. Please don’t panic if you can only get half a team for each. Enter them as is, and we will try to organise something. E.g. if both teams agree, a game of tag will take place instead of tackle, in the interests of safety.
  • Warriors foundation. The ARL are working with The Warriors Foundation to initiate a teacher education programme that focusses on upskilling teachers + volunteers to fee confident to coach kids in Rugby League. They are happy to come out to us to make it easier. A central location will have to be agreed upon. They are happy to include a number of initiatives to promote the game in schools.


Term 2 Review

  • Football

The day was run well from Joe at Huapai and Mauricio from Kiwi Kick Stars. The referees did a fantastic job. Thank you to Rutherford College for their support of us in this space. The use of the tournify app was a big help on the day as schools could keep up to date with live scoring etc while not having to go to tournament HQ regularly. The day ran at full capacity. In 2027, we will most likely move back to split days to accommodate numbers.


  • Basketball

Overall, the basketball tournaments went well, aside from the issue with the Birdwood Boys team, which we are working hard to rectify. My apologies for that.

There were a few teething issues with using the app during the boys' tournament as it was my first time using it. However, by the girls' tournament the following day, everything ran smoothly. Once I became familiar with the app, I found it worked really well. I'm grateful to Waitākere, Massey High, and Liston for providing referees. There were a few sideline issues involving adults, but these were resolved quickly. Thankfully, the schools are still keen to continue supporting the tournament despite those incidents.

One challenge was running the boys' and girls' tournaments on back-to-back days. It required a significant amount of preparation and meant a lot of time out of the classroom. If possible, I would recommend splitting this responsibility between two schools in future. 

  • One possible suggestion is to have a 5 min gap between the end of pool play and the start of the playoffs. This is to allow teams to get themselves organized and on the correct court on time.
  • Table Tennis

An enjoyable day had by all. Thank you to Michelle and her team for hosting

this tournament down at Hobsonville Point


  • Hockey
  • Thank you to the North and South Trust for their support with funding to allow us to organise umpires on the day. A big congratulations to Olivia and her team for running a tournament for the first time today. 29 teams across 4 grades of competition. Thank you to Rutherford College and Hobsonville Point Secondary School for their support with the umpires. They made our job as teachers a lot more manageable and enjoyable.


  • Yr 5/6 Football
  • Another huge day that Joseph Organised. Games were played in good spirits and no major incidents of note occurred. Thank you to Mauricio for his support with the organisation, Carls Jr for the promotion they ran and to Rutherford College for their supply of referees.


Term 3 Preview


  • Netball
  • Thank you to The Trust Charitable Foundation for their support with funding to allow us to organise umpires on the day. We have 20 umpires ready to go on the day. However, this will not be enough to cover all courts so please have someone ready to help umpire on the day also. The draw will be out to schools in the next few days. It will be available via Tournify. In the playoff stages we will have 2 umpires on per court. This means that some of the lower placed games mwill need schools to umpire their own games. We will be playing 2 x 9 minute halves. This will allow us to finish on time. If we stick with 10 minute halves, the last game won’t finish until 2:45pm.
  • In the yr 8 boys and girls grades, the schools that ranked themselves a 3 will play in a social competition amongst themselves. This will allow for similar ability students to play without the burden of feeling overpowered by mire skillful teams. 4 pools of 4 in the competitive grade. Social grade will be a 5 team round robin.
  • 7 boys- 10 teams, 2 pools of 5 straight into semis and then finals.
  • 7 girls has 15 teams.
  • The day will follow a boys round, girls round and all schools need to bring bibs and a ball.


  • Yr 5/6 Netball
  • Please see above for general information. Draw is yet to be done, but schools will have plenty of time to see draw when it is done. Once again, this will be via Tournify. Thank you for this Olivia.


  • Cross Country
  • Entry is now open via the google entry sheet. 8 entries per school per division. Plenty of parking will be available. Please check the information doc for jobs and which schools are allocated each. Please let Matt know ASAP if your unable to make the day. Auckland champs will be held at the same venue on the same course. We have moved from Muriwai this year for ease of access.
  • Yellow paper bands to be worn by students who have any medical needs. Schools can either supply their own or Matt has some availPlenty available. Please write students name and team manager's mobile number on there in case of emergency.
  • Volleyball
  • Entries are getting full so enter as soon as possible. New date of Monday 21 September at the Trusts Arena. Not sure about umpires as yet but Gavin will let us know as soon as he knows. Reminder about parking at the venue is now paid. Either park in the car park and pay or please park off site. Fines are quite large if not paid.


General Information

  • Sportsmanship
  • Can you please reinforce with your students about showing good sportsmanship at the end of matches towards both adults and students. I have had two incidents last term of inappropriate handshakes, one to the extent that a student has had to go and have x-rays on their hand. Lucky nothing broken but a sprained wrist was the result.


  • Contact information
  • Please ensure you are signed in and all contact information is up to date. If organising an Auckland event, co-ordinators to ensure all zone conveners are in on the communication as well please.


  • Carls Jr
  • They are happy to come along to our zone days. However, this will depend on the venue and if catering is already in place. Everyone was happy with this arrangement.


  • Referees project
  • We have managed to secure more funding for umpires for our upcoming netball days. This is a huge help and a big thank you to The Trusts Charitable Foundation for their support of us. The also helped with funding earlier this year with Tee ball and Softball. A big Thank you to The North and South Trust Also for the funding they gave us for our recent zone Hockey day.


  • Tournify
  • Feedback about the app was positive, and if possible, the zone would like to keep using it to help with tournament draws and organisation etc.


Meeting closed 4:16 PM