Story courtesy of College Sport Media

There was a variety of success for Onslow College sportspeople at this year’s College Sport Wellington Sportsperson of the Year Awards, held at Te Rauparaha Arena on Sunday night.

Students from the Johnsonville co-ed school had 16 finalists and took home seven awards across a mix of sports, which was headlined by Arno Lee winning the Supreme Boys Sportsperson of the Year award.

Earlier this year he went to the Commonwealth Games, on the back of winning the Boys age-group 3m and 10m titles at the 2022 New Zealand Diving National Championships. He also competed in the FINA World Diving Championships in Budapest, Hungary.At the end of this month, Lee is heading to Canada to compete in the FINA World Junior Championships.

Onslow College students won both major football accolades. Theo Ettema was the Male Footballer of the Year and Olivia Ingham the Female Footballer of the Year.

Ingham was also the school’s Female Sportsperson of the year, alongside male winner Arno Lee.

Both Ettema and Ingham were also finalists for the overall Sportsperson of the year award on Sunday night.

Year 13 defensive midfielder Ettema recently played in selected for the New Zealand U19 Men’s football side that won the Oceania U19 tournament in Tahiti and qualified for next year’s U20 World Cup in Indonesia.

Ettema is a member of the Wellington Olympic Football Club who were Central League champions and are currently playing in the National League – and currently top of the table after six rounds. He was also named as Capital Football’s Men’s Young Player of the Year for the 2022 season.

Ingham has been a fulltime member of the Phoenix Women’s Football Academy this year, and has been part of New Zealand U17 football set-ups and last month went to the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in India.

Striker Ingham plays for the Lower Hutt club team and returns to school for Year 13 in 2023.

Year 13 Pepi Olliver-Bell was the Female Futsal Player of the Year, having been awarded the MVP accolade at the Capital Futsal Draft League in term one and having led Onslow College to the Senior Girls CSW futsal title.

Olliver-Bell had been selected in the Capital Futsal Super League Women’s team whose campaign was unfortunately cancelled due to Covid restrictions and has been named in the Capital Futsal Women’s U19 team for the Youth Futsal Tournament to be held in December 2022. and had been selected in the Capital Futsal Super League Women’s team whose campaign was unfortunately cancelled due to Covid restrictions.

Pepi has also had great football success this year and was named as the Capital Football Women’s Young Player of the Year for the 2022 season.

Year 11 Michael Ling was the CSW Male Shooter of the Year and had a successful year on the range. Amongst his achievements, Ling was part of the third placed Wellington team that competed in the Teams of Ten Jim Hart Trophy. He was ranked fifth in the Wellington U21 level Wellington Smallbore Rifle Association rankings.

Jake McLellan was the Male Orienteer of the Year, and the future is bright for the Yyear 10 athlete.

A leading New Zealand U16 sprint, middle distance and long-distance orienteer, he was part of the New Zealand Schools Orienteering team that competed in the Southern Cross competition in Australia. He won the Boys U16 Australian Championships long distance title and set the fastest individual time on the course in the U16 Boys Australian Championship Relay race. He also won the Victoria State U16 middle distance orienteering title.

Jordan Keene was the Male Bowls player of the year, having won this year’s New Zealand U18 Indoor Bowls in his ninth straight year competing, and NZSS Indoor Bowls titles and was the joint Player of the Tournament at the latter event.

Keene was also second with Logan Heppell in the NZSS U18s pairs and, amongst other accolades, was fourth in the Open Champion of Champions National Singles tournament.

Additionally, Penny Kinsella was one of eight Volunteer of the Year award recipients on the night. Earlier this year, Onslow College’s former deputy principal and former international cricketer received the Bert Sutcliffe Medal for outstanding services to the game at the New Zealand Cricket awards.

Onslow College Principal Sheena Millar said the school is delighted with this success.

“It was incredible to see our athletes, from such a vast range of sports recognised at the awards on Sunday evening,” said Millar.

“I am extremely proud of the achievements of our sporting people and would like to congratulate everyone involved. Onslow College is involved in an enormous number of sports.

“It is also very apparent the large number of parents, students and friends of the school that contribute to our success.  We are very lucky to have the input we do from our volunteers, thank you for all that you do for our students.”

For a full list of award winners click here [link to award winners list].