Former DLU student successes

Kayla Polley

Former Room 5 student Kayla Polley (2010-2011) has been selected for the New Zealand under 17 years Volleyball team. Kayla began playing Volleyball in Year 7 and trialled for the Development Team during the secondary school nationals in Palmerston North in March. She will take part in a Volleyball NZ high-performance camp at Hamilton's Fraser High School over Queen's Birthday Weekend and in the first week of the coming school holidays. They are scheduled to compete in the Australian Junior Championships in Canberra, and in the Asian Youth Volleyball Championships later in the year. Well done Kayla!


Kayla Polley

Eden French-Putu

Former Room 5 student Eden French-Putu (2010-2011) is the Head Girl at Hamilton's Fraser High School in 2016. She is pictured below after laying a wreath at the Anzac Day commemorations at Hamilton's Cenotaph.

Eden French-Putu lays the Anzac Day wreath for Fraser High School.

Eden French-Putu, former Room 5 student and 2016 Head Girl at Fraser High School.

Poppies near the Hamilton Cenotaph.

Shaun Mackie
Former Room 5 student Shaun Mackie (2008-2009) is the 2014 Head Boy at Hamilton's Fraser High School and is pictured below with Head Girl Amber Palmer (former Room 4 student in the DLU) after laying a wreath at the ANZAC Day ceremony in Hamilton.

Shaunna Polley

Former Room 5 student Shaunna Polley (2005-2006) has set her sights on her Olympic dream of competing at the next Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Below is an extract from the Waikato Times on 2/4/14.


Julia and Shaunna

Hamilton's Julia Tilley and Shaunna Polley set off overseas on Saturday on a month-long venture which they hope may lead them to the 2016 Olympics. New Zealand's top-ranked women's pair were heading to play on the AVC (Asian Volleyball Confederation) Beach Tour in Thailand and Vietnam, as well as try and qualify to compete on the big stage of a FIVB (international federation) World Tour event in China. Winning the New Zealand Pro Tour at the end of January (for the second successive time) gave the duo the right to compete on the Asian Tour, where they will be joined by one other Kiwi women's team and two men's sides.                            
           Tilley, 24, and Polley, 20, were in their second year of playing together, and were looking to build on their experience on the Asian Tour last year, where they finished fifth, seventh (twice) and ninth in three-day tournaments involving 16 or 24 teams from the Asia-Pacific region. ''We're definitely looking to build on last year's results, and try to crack a top four, that'd be really good,'' Tilley said. ''The competition's pretty strong. It's just hard because some of the teams you're up against play full time, they're professional.'' The other thing they were preparing for was the heat. ''I always find the first training you just feel like you have asthma or something because it's just so hot and the air's so thick,'' Tilley said. ''It's pretty tough, especially because we're playing teams that are used to it. It is a real advantage for them. But you do get used to it and you do work out strategies where you can kind of make the most of it.''                                                                                                                         
             The pair will play two events in Thailand, and one in Vietnam, with the trip to China in between. ''It's all the Olympians and everyone's going to be there, so that's really exciting for us,'' she said. In China there would be a main draw of 24 teams, and the Kiwis would have to go through a large qualification process. Anyone was able to enter the World Tour, and based on their ranking points from last year's efforts on the Asian Tour, the Kiwis have made qualifying. The World Tour was where the pair wanted to be regularly, but financial constraints were holding them back. With no funding from Volleyball New Zealand or Sport NZ, it was up to Tilley and Polley to fund their way. Thankfully for the Asian Tour, the Asian federation pay accommodation and food costs, but the duo have to find a lot more, including funds for their Mt Maunganui-based coach Charles Leota, who they would like to take on the trip.                                                                                                                           
                Polley would finish her science degree at the University of Waikato this year and the pair would look to move to Mt Maunganui over the summer, go to Asia again and possibly set up camp in the United States or Europe and play over the New Zealand winter.

Georgia Allen
Former Room 5 student Georgia Allen (2008-2009) has won the Girls Under 18 Single Sculls at the 2014 Maadi Cup rowing regatta for secondary schools' students at Lake Ruataniwha at the end of March. Georgia was then selected for the New Zealand Junior trials in April. Congratulations Georgia, we are proud of you!
Update!     (29 April 2014) After week long trials at Lake Karapiro, Georgia has been selected in the New Zealand team for the Junior World Championships in Hamburg, Germany in August. She has been named in the Women's Quad sculling team. The team will train at the Rowing NZ High Performance Centre at Lake Karapiro for six weeks from June 8th, and the Hamilton Girls' High School student will attend St Peters School in Cambridge during that time.

Jaimie Jefferson

Former Room 5 student, Jaimie Jefferson (2010 - 2011) is achieving great success in showjumping and is regularly competing throughout the North Island. The pictures show Jaimie competing at her first 3 Star event, the Pony Grand Prix APL Showjumping Waikato Championships, at the Mystery Creek Events Centre near Hamilton, where she went round the course with only 4 faults.

 

Daniel Popping

A former Room 5 student, Daniel Popping (2007-2008), has achieved one of his goals from his time at Maeroa Intermediate School, to play for the 1st XV Rugby team for Hamilton Boys High School. At the weekend, Daniel played blindside flanker in the huge win over Rotorua Boys High School in the final of the Chiefs Cup, the regional 1st XV competition, winning 47 - 0. The match was televised live on the Sky Rugby Channel. Daniel opted to attend Hamilton Boys High over Auckland Grammar School because of the growing reputation of the Hamilton school rugby programme, and has achieved his goal. He will hopefully be a part of the team (injury permitting) for the rest of the season with further challenges ahead. Another former Kahikatea student, Jarrod Gwynne (Room 4), played off the reserves bench in the match and scored a try after coming into the match in the second half.

Adam Burn

 Former Room 5 student Adam Burn (2005), has been selected for the All Blacks under 20 team to compete at the IRB Junior World Championships in France in June 2013. Adam, the Head Boy at Hamilton Boys High School in his last year there, is currently studying Management at Waikato University and plays for Hamilton Old Boys club and plays provincial rugby for Waikato.

Update- (2013) Adam represented the Waikato ITM Cup team at No8 throughout the National Provincial Championship, including defending the Ranfurly Shield.

Mikaela Jefferson

Former Room 5 student Mikaela Jefferson (2008-2009), selected in the New Zealand Athletics team to compete in Oceania Games in Noumea, won the GOLD medal in the Womens under 18 years 100 metres in a personal best of 12.52 seconds. (5 June 2013) Well done and congratulations Mikaela. She currently attends Hamilton Girls High School.

Mikaela crosses the finish line in a personal best time.



Mikaela in her NZ uniform.

Update- (October 2013) Michaela was named Sports Woman of the Year at the Hamilton Girls High Sports Awards and placed the following photo on social media.

Carly McIlroy

Carly, pictured at Fergs Rockwall on the 2012 Kahikatea Wellington trip.

Former Room 5 student Carly McIlroy (2011-2012), has been steadily climbing her way to the top of her sport by becoming the under 14 Girl's National Champion as well as holding the regional title at under 18 year level at Rock Wall Climbing. Carly is now at Hamilton Girls' High School. Congratulations Carly! She is building up to attend the Oceania Rock Climbing Championships in Noumea later this month, and hopes to travel to the World Championships next year. Her dream is to travel the world, especially Spain where she would love to climb the many outdoor climbing venues.

Photo source- Waikato Times

Update-

Carly has won the Gold Medal in the under 16 years grade at the Oceania Championships in New Caledonia competing against the best indoor rock wall climbers in her age group from Australia, New Zealand and the host country. Carly is 13 years old and is proud of her accomplishment.

"It was great to go up on the podium and hear the national anthem playing, it was quite overwhelming actually," she was reported as saying.

Update- (17 August 2014) Carly has been selected in a team of 13 climbers from New Zealand for the World Youth Climbing Championships in Noumea, New Caledonia from 19-23 September.

 Marco Rojas

Former Room 5 student Marco Rojas, has been signed to a football contract with European club VfB Stuttgart in the German Bundesliga. Marco began his professional career with the Wellington Phoenix in 2009 after being signed as a 17 year old while still at Fraser High School. He subsequently played for Melbourne Victory, as well as playing for the All Whites. The 21 year old will probably be starting on a salary of 300,000 Euros ($NZ466,000) a season. Marco has been touted as a player of great potential and this season won the medal for the best A League player. We wish Marco all the best, and look forward to following his progress, as well as catching him if he continues to play for New Zealand.