Tiny Taupō school sends team to Zespri AIMS Games for the first time

Lake Taupō Christian School has only 40 intermediate age students but was thrilled to send their first team to Zespri AIMS Games this year.

The school was able to send a nine-student hockey team to represent them in the mixed grade competition.

The 22nd edition of the AIMS Games was the biggest yet, with 14,506 athletes aged 11 to 13 from 467 schools competing across 27 sporting codes. This year there were 105 hockey teams competing.

The school has around 150 students, but only 40 who are intermediate age. The intermediate students had wanted to make it to AIMS last year, but ran out of time to apply.

The school has had a hockey team for the younger students for around a decade, but it’s only within the past three years they’ve expanded to having an intermediate team.

“We did have moments where we were like ‘can we get the 9 kids together,’” said Zoanna Lamond, who was at AIMS supporting the team.

She said the community came together to bring the kids to AIMS, with parents volunteering to cook and supervise the kids.

“We have a couple of students where this is their first time away from home,” Lamond said.

Twelve year old Lianie Viljoen has been part of her school’s hockey team for years, and has been out of town to play for hockey clubs in the past, though this was her first time playing in Tauranga.

“I’ve been playing it since year 2,” she said.

According to Lianie, the best part of being at AIMS was just playing hockey with her team. “We’re all having fun,” she said.

Megan Cleverley, the general manager for the Tauranga Hockey Association, said it’s “not very often at all” that such a small school is able to put together a team for AIMS. “I know that it’s taken them a few years.”

She said the mixed grade category has been a “game changer” for allowing smaller schools to compete.

The team placed 37th out of 57 teams.