HILLCREST High School is one of the schools competing in the Coca-Cola® 30 Minute Heroes Challenge in the hopes of winning an outdoor gym to the value of R2000 which will be installed at the winning school.
The competition was introduced to schools participating in the Coca-Cola® T20 schools challenge and aims at getting learners to participate in physical activity. The concept encourages as many learners as possible to complete a five drill circuit within a 30 minute period. The circuit consists of shuttle runs between six beacons, moving a cricket ball from one beacon to the next; target throwing at a set of wickets; skipping with a skipping rope; catching balls off a rebound board and weaving in and out of 10 slalom poles.
The scores will only be made public once all schools have completed their challenge. The school that completes the most circuits in the allotted time frame will win the prize.
Learners from grade 8 to 11 were encouraged to take part and Hillcrest High School’s Sports Manager, Conrad Schultz, was encouraged at the number of their learners that participated.
“What I learnt from the exercise is that our boys cannot skip,” said Schultz. “Academics are the main focus of the school and this year we want to get our matric pass rate back to 100%, after slipping to 99% last year, but sport is not far behind.”
The school has produced some gifted sports persons in the past year. Robin Smith has been selected to play for the KZN under-17 cricket team. He is also their leading hockey goal scorer and in 2014 will be leaving for America to play baseball after receiving a scholarship. Jo-Anne Van Der Veen has been selected to play for the ladies under-17 provincial cricket team. Both participated in the Coca-Cola® 30 Minute Heroes Challenge.
Schultz is hoping the school wins the outdoor gym. “We have been raising funds for a gym and if we win our goal will be achieved faster than expected.”
