Discipleship Tournaments

There are 2 grades for our Seventh-day Adventist Discipleship Tournaments:

Championship Grade: For the teams who wish to play For His Glory through excellence and competition.

• Women
• Men
• Mixed

Social Grade: For the teams who wish to play For His Glory through fun and fellowship.

• Women
• Men
• Mixed

Please note: The above options will be based on the number of teams that register in that division, we may need to consolidate or alter grades based on viable numbers. Your team will be consulted if this is necessary.

A player must be 16 years or older at the time of the event. All the North New Zealand Conference Seventh-day Adventist Youth Sports Tournaments have an age limit of 16+ for players. This has been set to ensure the safety, fairness and duty of care requirements for young people playing at this level of competition. This age limit policy also means that we meet our Church’s Safe Place Policies (the tournaments are not currently set up to meet the requirements for under 16s) and the wishes of our churches (who indicated that they do not want to play against under 16s in our Youth Tournaments). Thank you for taking note of this age limit and protecting the standard of our tournaments. If a team does use a player who is under 16, they forfeit that game, the under-age player will be asked to leave the court, and the breech will be reported back to your Church Pastor and/or Youth Leader, which may result in suspensions of future tournaments.

• A player must be registered with only ONE team throughout the whole tournament. Playing an unregistered player (or a registered player from another team from any other grade) will result in the disqualification of that player from the game and the default of that game by the offending team.
• Each team is to be made up of regular attendees of a Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) (for at least 3 out of 4 weeks every month over the last 5 months) and/or SDA members on the church roll. A church pastor must sign off your application to ensure your team is made up of regular attenders who are actively involved in such programmes as Pathfinders, worship services, small groups, AYs, Sabbath School, community service, Bible Studies, cell groups, or Youth Week of Prayer, etc.
• Each team is allowed to include 2 non-regular attendees (non-SDA guest players). This concession is not designed to help you stack your team to win but to ensure you can use this sporting event as an opportunity to reach out to non-Adventist friends. (NOTE: You are not allowed to include current representative players or ex-representative players from the last 12 months as your non-SDA guest players).
• Each team must be affiliated with the local Church Youth Group and the local Church Pastor will be asked to check and endorse their team(s).
• All players must be 16 years or older. All of the SDA Sports Tournaments have an age limit of 16+ for players. If a team is found to have used an under-16 player, they will forfeit that game, or if the game is still in progress, the under-age player will be asked to leave the court and points/sets gained by the offending team up to that point in the game will be forfeited.
• The tournament committee reserves the right to check the names submitted for each team and to remove names/teams from the final draw if necessary.
• For the purpose of accountability and transparency, a list of every team and their registered players will be sent out to the teams before the tournament. This will aid any teams who question whether another team has played an unregistered player or a player from another grade.

Because each player has chosen to represent their Church, family, and God to the best of their ability, we believe that this is reflected in both the spirit in which they play and the uniform they wear (attitude and action).

• Teams must wear a uniform shirt and shorts.
• Numbers must be clearly visible on the front and back of all tops. No chalk, tape or permanent marker may be used to number or convert numbers on a player’s shirt.
• Adequate footwear must be worn. No jandals, slip-ons or bare feet allowed.
• No track pants or jeans.

Each team must have a captain and/or coach with them for every game. This person is to be aware of any medical problems of players in the team, organise first aid requirements for their team, implement the rules of the competition (and ensure all players know and understand the Rule & Regulations), and supervise their players.

Teams are responsible for their team’s personal effects. Tournament staff will not be held responsible for any loss or damage to personal effects. We encourage teams to ensure security measures for these items.