Only 24 hours in a day. Just seven days in a week. Whoever came up with that ridiculous timetable clearly wasn’t thinking of Oscar Hoare.
How is he supposed to fit his swimming, football, rugby, league, surfing, bodyboarding, fishing, music, maths, kapa haka, reading and saving the planet into such a short week?
Oscar is passionate about so many things it’s hard to know where to begin.
He’s a hotshot at football, being in the Western Springs development squad, where he plays in the key central attacking midfield role. His favourite player is the French teenager Kylian Mbappe, who wowed the world with his speed and skills this year as his country won the World Cup. If Oscar chooses to pursue football for a career, he might one day face a difficult choice. Born in London, with a Kiwi father and a Venezuelan mother, he’s eligible to play for three countries. Could the national selectors of New Zealand, England and Venezuela form an orderly queue please! (just joking - the All Whites would win hands down.)
However, Oscar’s favourite sport is swimming. He’s broken many records and won first place in numerous events, both individual and relay. Representing Ponsonby at inter school, Oscar was first in his favourite event, backstroke, and second in everything else. While for some, getting up while it’s still dark outside to go swimming before school is a serious challenge, Oscar’s up like a jack in the box for his twice weekly early morning training. Indeed, he’d go every day if it weren’t for Mum’s need for an occasional morning off!
If he ever gets even more serious about swimming, it’s safe to say he’ll be nearly as fast as the fish he loves to catch. When the family visit their batch in the Marlborough Sounds, Oscar can usually be found on his kayak fishing for cod, schnapper and terakihi. Out on the water is where he’s happiest, and one of Oscar’s best memories is of a day at the Mokohunau Islands, when he suddenly felt the jerk of a 22 kilo kingfish on his line. In the battle between man and beast, it was Oscar who prevailed after a 15 minute struggle. By 11am, he’d landed five kingfish, and soon after he was lying down in the front of the boat recovering from adrenaline overload!
But Oscar is far more than just a sports nut, and has an impressive range of talents. He’s grown up speaking to his mother only in Spanish, the native tongue of Venezuela, so he’s fluent in that language. He enjoys mathematics, solving Rubik’s cubes and playing chess. In an ICAS Maths test, he scored in the top nine percent in New Zealand and the Pacific.
He also has good leadership skills. His charisma and caring nature often see him appointed captain of his sports teams, including cricket, softball, rugby league and rugby union. Last month, the school recognised Oscar’s qualities by awarding him the Max Seddon Cup for 2018, an accolade voted for by both teachers and students, which goes to the most caring and kind student in year 6.
Music? Check. Oscar sang in the school choir at the Auckland Primary Principals Association (APPA) Music Festival, a celebration of music in which more than 4500 kids from throughout Auckland participate, featuring a variety of choral, instrumental, dance and cultural items.
And what does Oscar do to get away from it all? These last school holidays, as he often does, he worked at his grandparents’ Riverbrook Vineyard in Marlborough to earn extra pocket money. His job is to thin the shoots of the new chardonnay vines, which involves walking down the rows of grapes picking off excess shoots and buds from the vines to create a well balanced canopy. This promotes good light and air circulation, and helps prevent potential disease, all crucial to ensuring a good harvest come March/April.
It’s an important job, but from what we’ve learned of Oscar Hoare, it’s one his grandparents can feel completely confident he’ll do well. (BILLY HARRIS)