Sunday 6th September finally came and 80 Pukekohe Intermediate Students hit the road for Tauranga. We gathered at the school car park, loaded up the vans then headed off to compete in the NZCT AIMS National Sporting Championship.
We arrived in the Mount at about 3.30pm, where we then drove to our camp ground and had a team meeting. We were told our cabin numbers, then we went over rules and safety. After a snack, unpacking our gear and a quick play on the playground, we jumped into our vans and headed to Queen Elizabeth The Second Event Centre in Tauranga for the opening ceremony. We sat through an hours worth of entertainment before the AIMS Games were officially opened.
The next morning we were woken at 6.30. We prepared for the day ahead, then we travelled to Harbourside Netball Centre. We were extremely early so we got a spot in the pavillion, then walked to Blake Park to watch the soccer girls. After their win, we went back to the courts and started our warm up. Our first game was a loss to Whakatane, the score was 24-30. We had some lunch then we had our second game, one of our hardest.
We lost 36-19 to Northcross. After a long day we drove home back to the campgound, showered, ate then we were off to the RSA for Dinner.
Monday wasn't a good start for us Netball Girls, but we went to bed early for a good sleep for the next day.
We psyched ourselves up listening to our team song as we drove to the courts.We warmed up the jumped on court for our first game of the day. We came out with a win, 25-24 against Taupo, who in the end took out the competition for Netball. Our second game was a loss to Peachgrove 30-17. After our third devastating loss, we went out fighting against Tahatai Coast and won 40-21.
We went to the movies that afternoon and watched The Proposal. We had dinner at the RSA then bedtime. After being placed in the Bottom 16, we wanted to prove ourselves. That day we had two more wins against John Paul College 33-6, and Hastings 42-21. In the late afternoon we drove to the beach, half of the team walked up the Mount and the other half stayed on the beach. We arrived 15 minutes late to dinner, and rushed our food down.
The next day we lost against Katikati 27-23, then won against Bethleham College 33-25. Winning our last game placed us in the C Grade Final on Friday. We came up against Havelock North and won 34-27. At 1pm we travelled to the closing ceremony. We sat through the presentations, and when hat was finished we drove straight home.
I had such an awesome time at the AIMS Games and it was an experience that i will never forget.
