Hillcrest High School entered their first ever team into the New Zealand Ultimate Secondary Schools Nationals Competition held in Taupo at the end of March. The tournament featured round robin play followed by knockout competition. Excellent play by Hillcrest resulted in fifth place at Nationals! We were unlucky to be knocked out of semi final contention early by being placed in an extremely strong pool. The prioritised isolating one of our many good receivers downfield to try and score with a long throw to them. Abubakr Adegbite, Marcus Woodward, Cole Findon and Joel Collings played excellent offence and defence in this role. Jane Weber, Christopher Harrison and Jonathan Schuster worked in the midfield collecting short passess and keeping the offence flowing. Mitchell Stone, Will Hamilton and Finn Collins ran the majority of the offence, constantly creating an advantage and throwing the longer, riskier throws.

Ultimate Frisbee is a sport with no referees at any level of play. Players are expected to officiate themselves and resolve conflicts with the opposition in a calm and fair manner. Each team provides feedback to their opposition at the end of the game against 5 different spirit of the game criteria: rules, knowledge and use; fair mindedness; fouls and body contact; positive attitude and self control; and communication. At the end of the tournament these scores are published as a form of feedback for teams. Hillcrest High School won the award for best spirit of the game! We are extremely proud of our players for their on field behaviour and we are pleased to see them rewarded with this recognition.