7s officials confident of future

The annual Vutia District School Old Scholars 7s tournament ended on a high note yesterday. Thirty two teams gathered at the Vutia District School ground for the past two days to play in a tournament where funds raised are directed to the development of the school. This year’s tournament was aimed to assist in the building of a walkway for the school. The 7s event was created by the school’s old scholars and over the years it has improved the standard of education for the district. This year’s tournament received the highest number of teams participating. Speaking to SUNsports tournament director, Simione Sela said, the old scholars have been focusing on projects for the school. “This eventuated back in 2012 from then until now we have tried to have it once a year. We old scholars have a project when we hold a tournament in the school. This time we want to build a walkway. The objective of this tournament is to raise funds which we will be used to build a walkway which amounts to $7000,” he said. “We have a record of 32 teams this year and the good thing is that there was no default, so all teams were here. We are so happy that this year we managed to get everything into place and we were able to fulfil our vision. Last year we wanted to start a new block so we had a soli. We managed to raise $5,000. We also had assistance from the government and with that $20,000 we were able to do that. Next year our project is to renovate the whole school,” he said. Sela said they managed to drive in big guns like Westfield who fielded two teams; we have other teams like Niuboto Brothers and some other famous teams as well. “One thing we are very proud of is the organisation of the tournament because most teams always want to come back every year. I think it is because of the reception of the community having provided for each teams. From this year’s success we are going to have this as an annual carnival from next year and we are looking at hosting another one in April, next year,” he said. Sela acknowledged their sponsors for making the event possible and is extending an invitation to other rugby clubs and even the national sevens team to participate in years to come and help out in the worthy cause. “Because of the success of the previous years, we saw this as a need in this area and also some teams here find it very hard to play in the mainland so having to host the sevens here, would be a huge success for us,” he added. Edited by Leone Cabenatabua