For Super Sports Tuesday, we spoke to Andrew Kilham from Matamata College about what this means for his incredibly successful volleyball teams.
“We have been very fortunate to produce many fine teams and many excellent players over the years. The new stadium will mean we can run events and host Waikato schools’ competition matches. Mollie Allison, our 2021 senior girls’ team captain and a New Zealand age group indoor and beach volleyball representative, has never played a competitive match in Matamata after five years of playing for school teams. Conor Goodwin from our boys’ team is also a dual New Zealand indoor and beach volleyball representative who has had to travel away from town to play all his matches for Matamata College teams. The chance for our up-and-coming junior players to watch more experienced athletes in action would be hugely beneficial. In addition, we hope that having our own quality venue will reduce the travel costs faced by our school teams. .
The Matamata stadium would benefit our teams by allowing us to have a quality venue in which to train and play. Our current gym does not really have a sufficiently high roof and the floor space is also too small. This means we’re unable to host competitive matches at home.”