Senior Boys’ Team at Futsal National Secondary Schools’ Tournament
As the New Zealand champions in 2013 and the Hawke’s Bay champions in 2014, we arrived at the New Zealand
S.S. Futsal Championships with high expectations. We were unbeaten in the Hawke’s Bay tournament and we
were under pressure to perform this year. This pressure possibly got to us.
Our draw for the tournament was not kind. In our pool were St. Patricks (including a Phoenix Academy player), one
of the favourites to win, and Wellington High School, two big Wellington teams.
We started well with wins in our first two games. We despatched Linwood H.S. of Christchurch 2-1 and Glendowie
College of Auckland 3-0. Our next match was against St. Patricks, a school a five minute walk from the stadium.
This meant that the stadium was packed and it seemed as if the whole school was there watching. The game
was tight. We turned on one of our best performances, but still couldn’t break them down. They had home advantage and home support. It was 0-1 going into the final moments and both teams were creating chances, but they
managed to slip one through Callum Bensemann towards the final minute. The final score was 0-2. Our final pool
game was against Wellington High School and we needed a win to make the top 8. On the back of the previous
defeat, our heads were down. We went down three goals early on, not a good start. We managed to claw back,
but they scored another two. We battled on but only managed to score another one. The final score was 2-5. This
was disappointing, yet St. Patrick’s ended up as the eventual NZ champions and Wellington High made it to the
top 4. This was some consolation.
In the plate rounds of play, we started with a 4-1 win over Onslow College, followed by a 5-4 win (on penalties) over
Marlborough Boys’ H.S. Mitch Keip, our specialist penalty saver, was on top form and made crucial saves after I
missed my penalty horribly. This resulted in us meeting Napier Boys’ H.S. in the plate final. The previous meetings
between our teams this year had ended in a draw and win for us, so we were quietly confident. We failed to make
an impact in a frustrating game and ended up losing 1-4. So, it was 10th overall, a disappointing finish to the season, but there are bright signs for the team next year. A strong group of Year 12’s are coming through with the likes
of Logan Bensemann and Brigham Fraser leading the way.
A big thank you to Mrs Jo Webber for all her support and coaching over the year.
Nick Wilkey
Futsal Boys Senior A
Back Row: Guy Sanders, Logan Bensemann, Dan Fridd, Brigham Fraser,
Callum Bensemann
Front Row: Rogan McNamara, Cameron Webber, Mitchell Keip,
Nick Wilkey, (Captain), Andrew Breen