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Football continues to develop as a
sporting code at the school, with
nearly 200 students, boys and girls,
across the Secondary and Preparatory
Schools regularly taking part in
local and national school and club
competitions.
St Andrew’s Football Development
Manager, Korouch Monsef, who played
for the New Zealand Youth 17 and
20 teams and has played for Dutch
clubs in the European league, says the
numbers reflect a national trend.
“It’s a growing sport; already more
people are playing football than any
other code in New Zealand.”
Korouch, who is also Football
Development Officer for Mainland
Football is involved in coach education
and creating a player pathway for
the school. He says the football
coaching team has clear goals this
year. “We have a defined strategic
plan and pathway that we are working
towards and that includes creating
opportunities and offering a quality
service so we can retain students who
might otherwise play for clubs, in the
school teams.”
Coach Nick Ryan and Assistant Coach
Matt Nicoll are excited about the
future of girls’ football at the College.
“Our vision is to have our team be
the top private school in the South
Island and to compete with success at
Nationals in a couple of years,” says
Nick. There are about 40 girls playing
football, and nearly half of the them
tried out for the first team.
Scoring
goals
Season highlights
The U14A, Second XI and First
XI boys’ football teams won their
grades in the Mainland Saturday
Competition. Henry Finnis
(Year 13) was selected into the
Canterbury United Youth Team
and Ellis Hare-Reid (Year 11)
and Sebastian Schacht (Year 10)
into the development squad. Lily
Bray (Year 9) represented New
Zealand in the U16 team and
also played for the Canterbury
women’s mainland pride team.
Jake Brunton (Year 11), James
Hoare (Year 12) and Hamish
Wallace (Year 12) were selected
into the Canterbury U16 team
and Ellis Hare-Reid (Year
11), Matthew Walsh (Year 11)
and Sebastian Schacht (Year
10) selected into the U15
Canterbury team.
Olivia Smith (Year 12) was
named in the Canterbury U17
team and Lily Bray (Year 9), Kara
Daeche (Year 9), Olivia Johnson
(Year 9) and Britney-Lee
Nicholson (Year 10) all made the
Canterbury U14 team.
Declan Hickford (Year 9), Jack
Morrow (Year 9), Ryan Nicholson
(Year 10) and Mitchell Radcliffe
(Year 9) represented Canterbury
at an U14 level.
“We have some really good Year 9 and
Year 10 players,” says Matt. “This gives
us a good foundation for a powerful
team. Combine that with strong leaders
such as Olivia Smith (Year 13) who has
played at Mainland Pride (Canterbury’s
women’s league) level and we have a
good mix of youth and experience.”
Nick says developing a pathway for
girls’ football means making the most
of the talent that the team has now but
also exploring the potential to link with
clubs and bring in high profile coaches
to provide another level of expertise
and support.
Boys’ Coach John Quealy says the boys’
teams played a hard and committed
season despite being in an unfavourable
division.
“We always knew it would be a tough
ask but the players really stepped
up and improved significantly as the
season went on. They listened to what
was expected of them, and put the
plan for each game they played into
practice.”
He says having a coach the calibre
of Korouch available will strengthen
football across all the teams. “We
really want to elevate the profile of the
game at school and students know
they now have access to a coach with
international experience. There is also
a lot of work happening at Preparatory
School level where we’ve been able to
create a participation environment for a
group of pupils who want to experience
the game in a structured way.”
Kara Daeche (Year 9)
Henry Finnis with the Fifa U20 World Cup Trophy.