The importance of sport at MAGS was celebrated just as much as sporting achievement at the Sports Awards Evening 2020 held on October 21 in the FW Gamble Hall.
Headmaster Patrick Drumm said that with the school year disrupted by lockdowns, training for and playing sport had helped students maintain discipline and get back into routines – something that should help them in their upcoming exams.
For the second year running Latonya Lole was named Victrix Ludorum while Andre Pickering was named Victor Ludorum.
Latonya is the Athletics Captain and Senior Champion, the Premier Netball Captain, part of the AKSS Rugby 7s Condors team, and MAGS Mixed Touch co-captain, who are AKSS Champions.
Andre is a member of the Boys 1st XI Hockey team, plays in the Boys Lacrosse team and 3rd XI Football, and is the top skier at MAGS, an AKSS Snowboarding medalist, and attended NISS for skiing and snowboarding.
The Squash Boys Premiers (Max Conder, Jae Kwan, Tarin Love, Riley McCracken, Mason Smales and Captain Jack Conder) were awarded the Headmaster’s Cup for Team of the Year after defending their national title.
The Te Aroha Keenan Cup for Outstanding Individual Achievement for girls was once again awarded to swimmer Brearna Crawford, while cricketer Adi Ashok won the comparable boys’ award – the Olympic Cup.
Brearna is an Auckland Champs Gold medalist, a National Age Group record holder in 100m & 200m Breaststroke, and 50m and 100m Butterfly Auckland Record holder, and NZ Open Record holder in 100m Breaststroke.
Adi is the 1st XI Cricket Captain, played for the NZ U19 Cricket team, was named AKSS Cricket Players Player of the year 2020, and is MAGS Best All Rounder.
Guest speaker and Albertian Sir Bryan Williams set the tone for the evening with an entertaining speech about how important sport had been in his life as he went from joint Victor Ludorum at MAGS in his final year of 1967, to being named in the All Blacks in 1970, and going on to be a rugby coach and administrator.
Sir Bryan, who played 38 test matches for the All Blacks, said the discipline and determination he had learned in the course of being a top rugby player and athletics champion at MAGS helped him with his studies and to stick at a law degree through tough times. He said he was grateful to MAGS for all he had learned and went on to achieve, and loved giving back to the school. In recognition of that, in 2017 MAGS’ No. 1 rugby field was named the Sir BG Williams Field.
At the conclusion of his speech, Sir Bryan was presented with the first MAGS Centenary hoodie and received a huge round of applause.
The night also saw the awarding of Blue Caps to MAGS’ Auckland representatives and Black Caps to MAGS’ NZ representatives. Nine students were also recognised as Elite Premiers for representing MAGS at Premier level for each of their five years at school: Monica Kelly (Basketball), Adi Ashok (Cricket), Jayden Dahya (Hockey), Mitchell Cooper (Orienteering), Luca Eastwood (Orienteering), Jydee Leonard (Orienteering), Aidan Skinner (Orienteering), Mikayla Cross (softball), Jack Conder (Squash).
You can see a full list of Blue Caps, Black Caps and individual sports award winners here
