Students and rugby unite

Seven Bay of Plenty Polytechnic students are gaining experience in the sport industry by helping the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union with projects.

Among the projects is the union’s centenary mission to track down invite all former top level Bay of Plenty Rugby representatives to attend the 100 year celebrations.

The opportunity for the students to gain work experience at the union came from discussions between staff there and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic group leader sport and recreation Pete Sommers.

“Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union are proud to work together on a range of projects, including student placements, for our students undertaking their sport and recreation degrees,” says Pete.

“Many of our students are looking to pursue careers in the sports management field on completion of their degree, so the experience of working with the rugby union is a great fit.

“As well as the valuable work experience, it is great exposure for the students to see how a large sporting organisation operates.” 

The first group of four students fitted in time between studies and gave up their two week holiday break to assist with the task of contacting former players or family members of the 1159 Bay of Plenty first class rugby representatives.

Aroha Koria, Sian Nightingale, Kayla Cronin and Cody Bryant quickly picked up the role of playing detective resulting in finding contact details for over 350 former players.

Bay of Plenty Rugby Union commercial manager Dirk Merwe says it was no easy task.

“We had a list of more than 1000 former players with no contact details,” says Dirk.

“The four polytechnic students’ first port of call was the electoral roll and from there they followed up with a myriad of phone calls to confirm contact details.

“We were extremely impressed by the efforts of Aroha, Sian, Kayla and Cody, who were extremely eager and very reliable.”

Bachelor of Sport and Recreation degree students Leanne Flanders and Kylie Cribb have been interns with the rugby union’s strength and conditioning team since January 2011.

“Initially they were just observing the early season preparation of the Steamers for their 2011 ITM Cup campaign, but now they play a more active role in the delivery of the programmes and monitoring protocols,” says Dirk.

Leanne and Kylie are also undertaking a research study using the Steamers players to help the strength and conditioning team monitor training sessions.

Meanwhile, degree student Monique Lawry is assisting in the rugby union office every Tuesday and Friday until late October 2011.

“The placement is clearly beneficial for the rugby union as it means more hands on deck at the busiest time of year, and also benefits Monique as it gives her insight in the running of a sport organisation.”