The NRL, in conjunction with St George Illawarra Dragons and CRL, held their annual Southern New South Wales secondary schools championships at Croom Road Sporting Complex, Albion Park on Wednesday, June 6.
Just over 2,500 high school students, from 35 schools participated in five local gala days across the Dragons' catchment to progress to these finals.
Seven championship finals were conducted and whilst the spoils were spread across five different high schools, it would be fair to claim Kiama High School as the carnival champions as they played in six finals and won three.
The winning schools in each age division were;
Shaun Timmins Shield (13s) Kiama HS 24 def. Figtree HS 6
Steelers Shield (14s) Kiama HS def. Mulwaree HS (round robin)
Steelers League Tag Shield (14s) Warilla HS 38 def. Kiama HS 0
Ben Creagh Shield (15s) Edmund Rice College 16 def. Kiama 12
Dean Young Shield (16s) Kiama HS 9 def. Corpus Christi 8
Dean Young League Tag Shield (16s) Holy Spirit College 28 def. Kiama HS 8
Ben Hornby Shield (Opens) Narooma HS 12 def. Edmund Rice College 8
"The region has a strong history and tradition of school Rugby League, with all the local Dragons legends playing in the respective competitions when they were at school," NRL game development officer Jonathon Dallas said.
"It is also the fourth year that our women's league tag divisions have been running alongside the boys tackle division which highlights the strength of the female participation of our game throughout the region."
The winning schools will now progress and represent the Southern NSW region at the Country Cup semi-finals and the NSW all schools finals in Term 3.
We now look forward to the primary school championships (Rod Wishart Shield and Paul McGregor Shield) on Thursday, July 26 and the St George secondary all schools on July 6.
