Gisborne Boys' High: A Tribute to Taika at the Rotorua Tournament

The numbers say Gisborne Boys’ High finished 14th in Rotorua. They don’t say why every game felt like a tribute.

This was a tournament played with a name written on skin and shoes. Taika.

Guard. Shooter. Surfer. Best mate.

He had run the floor for the Gisborne Under-13s B team and the Boys’ High junior development side, a tidy guard with a clean handle and a jumper that stretched out to the three-point line. To those who knew him, though, the scouting report always started somewhere else.

“Taika was a good guard, ball-handler, passer, could shoot mid-range jumpers and three-pointers. More importantly he was a great person, always happy and smiling,” teammate Ollie Tong said.

This week in Rotorua, Tong led a team still trying to process the unthinkable. He carried Gisborne’s offence and, in many ways, their grief.

Playing for Taika

Tong stayed with Taika and his family for a week in 2024. Surfing. Exploring. The kind of easy, endless days you assume you’ll repeat.

“The last time I saw him was in January of this year at his house in Wainui. We surfed at Makorori and hung out the day before he left. He was just a week older than me. I just gave him a hug and said I’ll see you soon.”

There was no “soon”.

So in Rotorua, at the Basketball NZ AA Zone 2 secondary schoolboys tournament, Taika’s name became part of the uniform.

“Santy, Sam Crosby, Aidan O’Brien, Ryland Bright and I dedicated our tournament effort to Taika,” Tong said. “I had his name on my arm and my shoes every game. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than this; it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through.

“Taika was one of my best mates. I’ve got very happy memories of him.”

Those memories seemed to fuel Tong. He averaged 20.6 points per game, finished as the eighth-highest scorer at the tournament, and was the only Gisborne player to hit double figures in every outing.

From 60-point hammering to history

Day one at Unison Arena began like a nightmare.

Defending champions Mount Maunganui College, stacked with two first-division players and Junior Tall Blacks, ripped through Gisborne 94-34 in Game 1. A 60-point defeat. A statement from the champs. And, for Gisborne, a gut punch.

Teams can fold after that. Gisborne did the opposite.

Game 2 turned into one of the great responses in the school’s history. Tong exploded for 39 points, Bright poured in 34, and Kelly-Morehu Paenga-Rangihuna added 15 in a wild 95-93 win over Ōtūmoetai College.

No Gisborne Boys’ High Senior A team at a regional tournament had ever lost by 60 and then won the next game. Until this one.

Coached by Felix Sparks and his father Adrian, the team rode that surge into an 87-66 win over Pāpāmoa, their offence suddenly humming, their belief restored.

The run stalled in Game 4 against St Paul’s Collegiate School. One bad quarter did the damage. Gisborne were outscored 22-9 in the second term and never recovered, eventually going down 68-46. That slip left them third in their pool and sent them into a preliminary quarter-final against John Paul College (Rotorua).

Again they fought. Again they fell just short. John Paul College won 87-78, pushing Gisborne into the 9th–16th playoff bracket.

The long road to 14th

From there the week became a grind.

A 91-80 loss to Te Awamutu College nudged Gisborne into a 13th–16th playoff against Whakatāne High. This time they cut loose, smashing Whakatāne 95-20, with Paenga-Rangihuna dropping 24 points in a blowout that felt like a release.

Their final act came against Taupō-nui-a-Tia in the playoff for 13th–14th. Bright led the way with 17 points, but Gisborne slipped to an 82-76 defeat.

Fourteenth place. A ledger that reads: heavy losses, stirring comebacks, big individual nights, and a sense that something larger than standings had been at stake.

“Don’t leave it too late”

As the tournament closed and his own school journey neared its end, Tong’s thoughts turned to those who will pull on the Gisborne singlet next.

“Don’t leave it too late. Work hard from as early as you can on your game, while you’re at school, whatever the sport, it makes a huge difference.

“Definitely this year has been my highlight for my performances and tournaments, but I went on some great trips in my junior years and as a senior.

“It’s been a great run, just with a bittersweet ending.”

The scoreboard in Rotorua will remember Gisborne as the team that finished 14th. The players will remember the week they played for Taika, his name inked on their arms, his spirit stitched into every possession.