Rob’s Blog - February 2022
Happy New Year to you all and I hope that you are coping OK in these Covid times. School has now been back for several weeks with a record roll of around 2150 students, over 500 of whom are Year 9 so it is a busy place … It has been a tough time for us all with up to 30 staff absent on some days and up to 300 of our students have had Covid!!
Staff News
In a major announcement last week Principal Robert Mangan announced that he will retire at the end of Term 2. He began his TBC journey as a PE teacher in 1982 rising through the ranks to become Head of the Department from 1988 to 2001. In 2002 he accepted a position as Deputy Rector at Lindisfarne College in the Hawkes Bay but then returned here as Principal in April 2008 when Graham Young retired.
Several long serving staff finished their time at TBC last year including Old Boys Hans Meys and Rob Sperling both retiring from teaching. Grant Mitchell has had a change of direction and is now teaching at Te Wharekura o Mauao in Bethlehem.
TBC has always had a good number of ex-pupils on staff, and I thought it may be of interest to list the current crop which includes teaching staff, IT staff, teacher aides and itinerant musician teachers. They are as follows:
Chris Lee (69-73), Andrew Ferguson (70, 72-74), Wayne Merritt (81-85), Justin Brewer (85-86), Adam Bollen (93-97), Steve Kelly (93-97), Brad Smith (94-98), Aidan Kuka (94-96), Brendon Weatherley (95-99), Charles Williams (96-01), Nathan Fry (98-02), Steve Graham (99-03), Dan Anson (00-04), Harlie Deacon (00-04), Adam Garner (01-05), Tim Clarke (01-05), Brett Ronowicz (01-03), Dr. Ryan Brake (02-06), Hamish Boyce (02-06), Paora Ranui (03-07), Jordan Evison (03-07), Joe Thomas (03-07), Yeh Lee (04-08), Mitch Zandstra (06-10), Reef Cooper (13-17), Shaquille Gaby (13-17) and Niven Dovey (16-20).
School Leaders 2022
Principal Robert Mangan has named the key student leaders for this year as follows:
Head Prefect Taine Larsen
Deputy Head Hemi Tulemau
Sports Captain Gus Shivnan
Arts Captain Hamish Graham
Academic Captain Benjamin Goodjohn
Another 2x Year 13 students have been named as Prefects for 2022.
Super 8 Sport
Cricket
Our cricket XI has played in the final of this competition for the last 5 years without enjoying success until 2022 – the previous win was 2006!! All team members performed well in dispensing Gisborne BHS, Hastings BHS and New Plymouth BHS in their 3 pool matches. The final was against Hamilton BHS who have claimed 12 titles since the inaugural competition in 1998. Hamilton batted first making 191 with TBC scoring the winning runs 6 wickets down. Top performances of the tournament were leg spinner Jack Jones’s 6/15 in a game changing effort against New Plymouth, Seb Heath’s maiden century against Gisborne BHS (123 0ff 105 balls) and Harsh Patel’s Man of the Match effort in the final taking 3/39 and then scoring 70*.
Tennis
Darrell Going took the tennis team off to Napier for their Super 8 competition which included his Year 10 son Nikau as an injury replacement. The strength of our team was in the depth of talent throughout the squad as crucial wins were gained by Juniors Bede McCashin and Nikau Going in the semi-final against Hamilton BHS. The final was against New Plymouth BHS, winners on the last 3 occasions, and Year 13 team captain Carrigan Hartley was able to lift the Super 8 shield. He has been in the team since his Year 9.
Volleyball
Our volleyballers took the Super 8 title in domineering fashion going through the tournament unbeaten – our 12th title win since the competition began in 1998. In pool play Palmerston North BHS (3-1), Hamilton BHS (3-1) and Hastings BHS (3-0) were beaten as were Gisborne BHS who were defeated 3-0 in the semi-final. The final was against New Plymouth and TBC took the title 3-1. MVP for the tournament was our Sports Captain Gus Shivnan.
Youth Parliament
Every year secondary school students from around the country gather in Parliament representing their respective regions. In 2022 two TBC students in Tom Catto and Ben Cosford will represent Todd Muller and Simon Bridges respectively at this annual event.
Old Boys Sport
Halberg Awards
Old Boys Peter Burling and Kane Williamson were both in the running for 2021 Sportsman of the Year with Kane taking out the title. His leadership of the Black Caps to victory in the 2021 World Test Cricket Final saw the side named Team of the Year in a great year for NZ cricket.
Cricket
Large numbers of TBC Old Boys have been involved in cricket at the higher level through this summer – the following are some of the details ….
Bay of Plenty Cricket The team took first innings points against Northland with Bharat Popli scoring 121 which gave the side a direct challenge for the Hawke Cup – symbol of Minor Association supremacy.
The sides challenge was washed out unfortunately but included 9 Old Boys – Tim Pringle, Dominic Crombie, Taylor Bettelheim, Peter Drysdale, Ben Pomare, Craig Baldry, Liam Collett, Niven Dovey and Henry Conway. The side is coached by Daniel Flynn and managed by Wayne Brill as well.
Since that match the team has played Thames Valley with Bharat Popli surpassing Mike Wright’s record run total for the Bay and going past 4000 runs. Tim Pringle took an impressive 8/71 in Valley’s first innings and had match analysis of 12/119. He has just been named in a New Zealand A side to take on the touring Dutch team later in the month.
Joe Carter has captained the Northern Districts side for the season with Brett Hampton another regular member. The ND A team has featured Hampton, Peter Drysdale, Ben Pomare, Pringle and Taylor Bettelheim.
Sean Davey has been playing for Canterbury A.
The international season in New Zealand has seen Old Boy Chris Brown as Umpire in several of the different Test and ODI matches. Chris has been part of the New Zealand A panel for more than a decade after his playing career for Auckland and then captaining the Cook Islands national team – his country of birth.
Rugby
There are a good number individuals who have been associated with the TBC rugby programme who have been involved with rugby at a higher level since their school days.
Joe Schmidt, who was Deputy Principal at TBC 20 years ago, has returned to NZ after a distinguished international coaching career and has been named as an All Black selector replacing Grant Fox while also assisting the Blues coaching staff.
Another former staff member in Josh Syms has been appointed coach of the Hawkes Bay Magpies for the 2022 season after being assistant previously and before that coaching Wairarapa Bush. In his time at TBC, he coached the 1st XI cricket side to the national title winning the Gillette Cup in 2005.
Former All Black & Old Boy Jarrad Hoeata has also headed down the coaching path having given away his playing career. In the 2021 season he was assistant coach for Taranaki and also the New Zealand Barbarians side.
There are a number of relatively recent leavers from TBC who have stepped up to rugby at the higher level. These include Veveni Lasaqa and Josh Bartlett who have been included in the Chiefs wider training squad while their TBC teammate Lucas Cashmore (Old Boy Blair’s son) is in the Crusaders wider group. Cole Forbes has taken a break from academia to take up professional rugby opportunities with Glasgow Warriors.
Mitchell Holton is playing rugby in Barcelona, Spain.
Peni Lasaqa is following in the footsteps of former Head Prefect Mungo Mason and playing rugby for Washington D.C. Old Glory while Mungo has gone back to the UK to study at Oxford.
Another former 1st XV captain in Aaron Carroll is plying his rugby trade with Carcasonne in France.
Basketball
It is early days yet for naming rosters for this year’s NBL, but Adam Dunstan (Frankin Bulls) and Brayden Iuli (Auckland Tuatara) have been named in preliminary squads for the 2022 season.
Athletics
The NZ season has been active in recent weeks with Old Boys Julian Oakley and Russell Green both featuring in various middle-distance events with a view to qualification for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later in the year. Julian picked up silver medals in both the 1500 and 5000 m. events at last weekend’s National Championships.
Open water swimming
Nick Shanks has perhaps become the first Old Boy to swim Cook Strait. He completed the 35 km. journey in 9 hours and 59 minutes.
Surf Life Saving
David Seidel paddled across Cook Strait last year but is looking to take on an even greater challenge later this month when he attempts to paddle the 37 km. to Tuhua (Mayor Island) off the Bay of Plenty coast.
Old Boys Arts
Carving
Graham Hoete (aka Mr G) has been commissioned by Disney and Lucas films to carve a taonga for Temuera Morrison to recognise his contribution to their films. The work is a wooden Boba Fett helmet – the character Tem played in the Star Wars films.
Pottery
Local potter John Roy has had one of his pieces – Glare - accepted as one of the 30 finalists in the annual Portage Ceramic Awards exhibition. It was one of the 226 entries into the competition.
Television
Erik Thomson will be back on NZ screens later in the year in the new show Aftertaste in which he plays Eaton West – an internationally renowned but highly volatile celebrity chef. The show will screen on the Rialto channel and Sky Go in New Zealand.
Old Boys at Work
Politics
After a tumultuous couple of months as National Party leader in 2021 Todd Muller suggested that he would not stand in the BOP electorate at next year’s general election. In recent times suggestions are that he has had second thoughts and will be back on deck for the election next year.
Education
Shane Cunliffe has begun his new teaching role as Principal of the brand-new primary school Te Manawa o Papamoa which began with 185 Year 1-6 pupils and 13 teachers at the start of 2022.
Business
Jay Reeve – DJ on the Rock -has branched out into the beverages industry with a group of friends in the last couple of years. They have developed the Pals brand which is a range of canned premium spirits with real fruit extracts which are all natural, low in sugar and without artificial colouring, sweeteners, or preservatives. The business is going very well and has pushed into the Australian market recently.
That is, it for now …. Please feel free to pass this on to any of your contemporaries that you think might be interested and forward me their email contacts. If you have any news that you think may be of interest to others, please pass it on to me on r.leslie@tbc.school.nz If you have not checked out the TBC Old Boys Facebook page that may be of interest as well.
