Palmerston North Boys High School Canoe Polo 2022
A Big Welcome to the 2022 Year of Canoe Polo at PNBHS. After having a few years of calmness this year is certainly shaping up to be one with a few more things happening.
Starting off is the stepping down of her role as Teacher in Charge, Sue Taylor. Sue has been an Awesome TIC to be associated with us, and I know that we are going to miss her immensely because of all the incredible work she would do behind the scenes.
For some of you she will be the only TIC you have known and her stepping down can be a big deal to you. But fear not, life does go on and this newsletter is the start of it.
PNBHS are working on a replacement(s) for Sue as I am typing this out. I have some names been given to me but as I have not yet met one of the Teacher’s I shall hold off just for the moment announcing anything.
In this newsletter will be some info on the upcoming School Grade games coming up in Term2, a heads up on the 2022 Home Show event and trainings so please read carefully and watch out for notices coming from school.
On a personal note I am announcing that I am looking at wanting to step back from PNBHS Canoe Polo for at least this year. A bit of a health scare late last year has led me to reflect on where I am with some things in my private life. I have been looking after PNBHS Canoe Polo now for 10 years and it has been a blast…..but this year is shaping up to be very, very busy for me and I would really like someone or some people to step in and pick things up so I can sort a few things out.
Our youngest son has been selected to represent NZ in the U21 Men’s squad and will be travelling to St Omer, France, to compete in the World Canoe Polo Championships in early August this year. My wife and I intend to travel over also and will be away for a month. Planning and getting ready for this trip are going to be taking up a lot of my time. The timing of the trip is right when we also have our major fundraising event so I will need someone else to pick it up. Factor in not being here for some of Term 2 School Grade and Term 3 you can see why it’s best for me to hand over things to someone/some people for a while. So, if a group of you can get together and contact me that would be really appreciated……pdickons@gmail.com
2022 School Grade Canoe Polo
For the parents of Yr9 players a little bit of an introduction is required here. During Terms 2 and 3 all PNBHS players will be placed in teams according to their ability and will play once a week for the entirety of Term 2 and 3.
The games will be played at either the PN Freyberg pool or the Feilding Makino pool. The other schools participating will be Freyberg, Feilding, Awatapu, St Peters and Girls High. If your son does not have any gear of his own, then do not worry as each venue has gear that they can use. A heads-up though that PNBHS do not supply school equipment to be used at School Grade and the equipment at the venues can be at times be described as “well used”.
There are 3 Divisions of which Div3 is the grade that most Yr9 students will start in, with Div1 being the highest.
We are still placing boys into teams and we will be getting team lists out as soon as we can. Over the first few weeks we are able to shuffle the players around a bit depending what we see once they start playing so do not be to alarmed if you think your boy is in over his head or in too low a team. Please come and see us if you have any concerns.
Team1 (Div1) will be looked after by Troy Huffman-Devey
Team2 (Div2) will be looked after by Harry Dickons
Teams3 & 4 (Div3) will each be looked after by a senior player (TBA) and a parent (TBA).
If you have not put your name forward to play School Grade or not turned up at trainings, then you could miss out. Let your parents know straight away and get things sorted ok?
2022 Manawatu Home Show, 28th July to 31st
This is our one and only fundraiser for the year and it’s not something we want to let go. For parents and students new to PNBHS we take part in 3 tasks during show week. We provide daytime security on the doors, overnight security (adults only), and we get to run a PNBHS Canoe Polo raffle. Four days of solid work but worth very penny. And when it’s done that’s it until the next year.
This years’ one is going to be a bit different in that the week the show is on, is the FIRST week back at school. This means we are not positioned to provide daytime cover for the Thursday or Friday. This has happened once before, and the Event people looked after things themselves during the Thursday/Friday. We still covered the nights and then did the doors on Sat/Sun. From memory I think we also canned the raffle.
I have already touched base with the Event people about the date clash.
My wife and I are going to be out of the country somewhere around the middle of July for a month and I really want a working group of parents to take this on board and run it. I can provide guidance to begin with and then wish to step back and let others run it. I can brief parents on what is needed, what works, what does not and liaise with the Event people to get things up and running.
Please contact me asap to get things moving. It is not an event that can be planned all at the last minute. If we let this go then we will be doing sausage sizzles outside Bunnings during the winter……
Trainings
Canoe Polo this time of the year can be quite stressful for players and parents alike, more so if your son plays Club Polo as well as Schools. This due to School Grade games and School training running in parallel to Club National League games and training. If it all starts getting too much for players and parents, then please let us know and we can sort something out
In Term2 we start playing School Grade Canoe Polo. Games will be on either a Monday or Tuesday evening depending on what team you will be in.
PNBHS do well at the local School Grade but this is generally down to us carrying on training through the winter season.
Around about now the trainings get a bit sporadic due to trying to fit in winter sports, term breaks and National League Canoe Polo events so please bear with us.
Players new this year to Canoe Polo can carry on training at the School Pool on a Wed from 3.30 to 4.30 as usual even over the Term break. It is not compulsory over the Term break but if you want to start off Term2 in style then turn up.
Players from this years’ School Junior Team and all other players that were not in the named Senior Squad are invited along to train on Sundays from 9 to 10.30. That starts from this Sunday and will go through the term break also. If you are away, then let me know. Once the Term break is over then Sunday will be the training day for the advanced Junior players and the Div2 team.
Senior Team – carry on as you are at present until Troy says otherwise. Once School grade starts then training times will change.
Now some friendly advice to Senior Players – it is getting darker sooner so……
Get to training a bit sooner.
Get on the water quickly and make use of what daylight there is.
Don’t think you can NOT go to training and still get in on the senior team without a very good reason!
