For the first part of the 2025 sporting year, College Sport Wellington is catching up with some of the sports captains and sports prefects to help promote their school and highlight some teams and individuals to keep an eye out for this year.

In this profile, we meet Wellington Girls’ College’s Tapini Raea

School: Wellington Girls’ College 

School’s sporting colours:  Teal and Black

Sports Prefect’s name:  Tapini Raea

What is the role of sports prefect at Wellington Girls’ College?

My job is to encourage enthusiasm for sport and for all the sporting events we have here at WGC. Things like speaking at assemblies,managing our social media and raising awareness as to what’s on and getting people involved are all part of the job. I am the dedicated sports prefect at WGC, but there is plenty of assistance and we have a committee behind us helping out and organising things.

What sport do you play for your school?

I play netball for the Senior A team, as a goal attack and am one of the senior players this year. Netball is my main sport, but I also play volleyball for school in the summer.

Recapping 2024. Tell us about one or two major highlights of your school’s sporting success last year?

We had lots of highlights last year. Two that come to mind are our rowing double, Emma Bagrie and Ella Barr, who won gold in the U18s Double Sculls at Maadi Cup and got Rowers of the Year at the CSW awards. Emma also won gold in the U18 Single Sculls and these two and Annabelle Stirling, Sophie Jones and cox Emily Mora won bronze in the coxed fours. We also have lots of good cross-country runners and last year they went to South Africa and competed for New Zealand.

Looking forward to 2025. What Senior sports teams should we be looking out for this year to do well in Wellington or beyond?

This year a few of our teams are going through a development year, so expectations are grounded. Our Senior A netball team made it to Nationals last year for the first time in nine years, so the big goal for us this year is to make the Wellington final or even winning it [and knocking off multiple defending champion St Mary’s College] would be amazing.

Is there a team to watch in Junior Sport in 2025? 

Our junior rugby team did well this year, so that is a team to look out for again this season.

Do you have students competing in individual sports to a high level that many perhaps don’t know about?

Last year we had a number of year 13s doing well in sports such as lifesaving and orienteering, so, without mentioning names, we have plenty of students in 2025 competing hard in these sports and others such as cross country running and rowing [as noted above].

Tell us a bit about your school’s support on the sports field or court? Does this support give your teams a lift in close or big games?

For finals and big games we get noisy crowds going along to support our teams – mainly the games we play against other schools and of course in finals. This support definitely lifts the players and the teams.

Do you have a school sporting mascot, or a sports song or challenge if so tell us about them?

We have a mascot that will be seen at all our big games and events, supporting the school. The mascot is called the Teal Seal, which everyone rallies around and again it helps spur the players and teams on in the big games and finals.

What about behind the whistle - does WGC have students involved in their sports as umpires and referees?

We have lots of girls helping out there and some are qualified with their sports associations such as volleyball and netball and other court sports in particular.

Article added: Tuesday 25 February 2025