Hayley Kerrison WBOP Primary School Coordinator Sport Bay of Plenty

The countdown to the start of daylight savings and warmer weather is on, winter sports are wrapping up and summer codes are already underway planning their own modules and tournaments.

Primary school sport coordinators across the WBOP (Western Bay of Plenty) will be receiving code information which they will advertise to students and parents of their school to make decisions on what codes they will participate in. Placing numerous children into teams, finding the uniforms and the ever valuable coaches and managers is no easy feat, particularly when most of the summer codes are underway early in term 4.

As always there is an abundance of sport available with new opportunities often cropping up. For Primary School children many of these codes are offered from year 3 onwards with a few such as Rippa Rugby and Cricket available from year 1. The modules and leagues run for approximately 8 weeks. The day, costs, equipment needed and any other requirements vary between codes and schools will receive the necessary information. The majority of these sports will pick up again in term 1 of next year however schools will reorganise entries and teams then which can give children the chance to try a different sport.

Term 4 sports leagues:

• - Cricket
• - Flippaball/Water Polo
• - Kiwi tag
• - Rippa Rugby
• - Tee-ball and Softball
• - Touch Rugby
• - Volleyball

Large numbers of participants are expected at the upcoming events on the WBOP Primary School Sports Calendar. Tennis will be held at Papamoa with both social and competitive divisions and we are excited to be running the WBOP Primary Orienteering event on a new course. Funky Fun Days run by BayVenues cater for year 1 to year 4 in a full on day of fun indoor sport. The Year 5 and 6 Cricket World Cup run by BOP Cricket is always a great mix of fun, talent and competition and the WBOP Athletics which will be held early in December will round out the events for 2015.

There are of course many sporting opportunities available outside of school including surf lifesaving, swimming and athletics that have local clubs who always welcome new, keen members. To view the Bay of Plenty A-Z Sports Directory click here

Contact your Primary School or Hayley Kerrison hayleyk@sportbop.co.nz for further information regarding term 4 sport opportunities.