New courts a sporting success for school

For many of us, skinned knees and bruised elbows bring back memories of an energetic childhood but when the playing surface is responsible for those injuries, the fondness of the memories fades.

An upgrade of the Rimu School outdoor sports and activity area means pupils and other community groups will no longer be forced to go elsewhere. With the help of Venture Southland and an enthusiastic community, Rimu School has installed TigerTurf Astrograss, which is an all-weather, multi-use surface, allowing greater flexibility. The turf is complemented with mobile sports equipment, such as netball hoops, tennis nets and hockey or soccer goals, which can be rolled on and off the surface and is the first school in Southland to offer the turf along with the mobile equipment.

The former concrete surface was compromising the safety of the pupils and community who used the facility, which meant the groups had to find alternative facilities. Board of Trustees member Carolyn Geraghtysaid the courts were the original concrete blocks from when the school opened and with years of wear and tear had become dangerous. “There was cracks running through them, the concrete was sinking in some parts, so the surface was uneven and worn to the point that it was shiny and slippery.” The school had to erect warning signs as people were getting hurt, Mrs Geraghty said.

The former courts had two tennis courts and one netball court, but the redevelopment included the addition of a second netball court. Mrs Geraghty said the assistance from Venture Southland community development planner Tina Geary was extremely beneficial to the $90,000 project. “Tina provided a huge amount of assistance with the project, guidance on what organisations to approach for funding and put together funding proposals,” she said. “I couldn’t have done it without the input from Venture Southland, particularly Tina’s expertise, which proved invaluable to the project.”

The Rimu School Board of Trustees and the Parent Teacher Association ran a successful auction for business sponsorship of the project, in return offering the opportunity to display their logo at the new courts. Community members and the school spent about 1000 hours during 30 working bees working to prepare the hard court area, Mrs Geraghty said. “The project was a real community effort with an enormous amount of work put in by volunteers.”

Hockey Southland saw the upgrade as a major benefit for the sport and will look at Rimu School to host school tournaments, camps and training programmes. Hockey New Zealand would also be using the facilities to coach Rimu School pupils and the school also hoped to work with Tennis Southland on securing some coaching, Mrs Geraghty said. “With these new facilities we hope it will encourage the re-establishment of the Rimu District Tennis Club.”