New sport scholarship announced

A new sport scholarship is up for grabs at the Hawke’s Bay Secondary School Sport Awards on October 30.

The Jarrod Cunningham Youth Sport Trust Scholarship of $2500 cash will be awarded to a high performing student that has already reached national representation in their chosen sport.

The scholarship is a partnership between the Trust and Sport Hawke’s Bay.

Sport Hawke’s Bay Community Sport Manager Junior Armstrong said the scholarship is a further extension of the support of the Jarrod Cunningham Youth Sport Trust, which is also the major supporter of the STARS (Supporting Talented Athletes Reach Success) funding programme.

“We have some fantastic sporting talent in the Bay, many of which represent New Zealand. However, representing your country overseas is expensive and in most sports, the athlete has to come up with some or all of the money to travel.

“Fortunately, we have trusts like Jarrod’s that want to ensure local sporting talent can reach for the stars. The scholarship is a great way to provide financial assistance that helps take away some of the burden of wearing the silver fern.

The Jarrod Cunningham Youth Sport Trust co-chairman Tony Maidens said the philosophy of the Trust is to keep youth in sport and preventing any barriers to participating when the costs become too high.

“It’s not cheap to fly to Europe or the US to play for your country. We got involved in STARS to enable many athletes to live their dreams and the scholarship is a further step of this for one super-talented athlete.

“However, they will not be awarded the scholarship just because of how talented they are on the court or field but also how they show leadership and demonstrate how much of a good sport they are off the field.

The eight finalists are:

Nic Palmer, Athletics, Karamu High School

Rose Morton, Football, Hastings’ Girls High School

Georgia Hulls, Athletics, Havelock North High School

Devan Flanders, Rugby, Hastings Boys’ High School

Jaydi Taylor-Chaffey, Netball, Napier Girls’ High School

Rhiarne Taiapa, Squash, Hastings Girls’ High School

Guy Harrison, Para-Athletics, Napier Boys’ High School

Rosalia Samia, Basketball, Napier Girls’ High School

ENDS

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