A free, charitable trust and community backed sports and activities academy for young people
Fun, safe and inclusive coaching designed to help young people grow in skill, confidence and wellbeing. We are starting with football and over time will expand into other sports and activities.
Join us at our Rongotai BEST Academy Auckland Launch Event!
We're launching Rongotai BEST Academy (RBA) - and we'd love you to be part of it.
Set up by old boys, RBA is a free, community-backed initiative supporting young people through sport, connection, and opportunity. Our first focus is free football coaching at Rongotai and Eastern Suburbs primary schools.
Join us at the HPB Innovation Hub for a relaxed evening as we share what we've been building and where we're heading.
We're also pleased to welcome special old boy guests, RBA Ambassador and All White Jesse Randall, and Wynton Rufer our coaching director.
Location: HPB Innovation Hub, 199A Main Highway, Ellerslie Auckland
When: Wednesday 15 April 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Light refreshments provided.
Our Academy will help young people build confidence, skills and wellbeing through positive coaching and inclusive development programmes. Guided by the Rongotai BEST Academy Charitable Trust, our mission is to make quality sport coaching accessible to every young person - fun, safe and free.
We have begun with football as our foundation programme, with a vision to expand into additional sports and activities to create long-term, sustainable pathways to help young people develop. With our governance and systems in place, and a building track record, we are now in a position to seek wider old boy and community support to help grow and sustain our activities.
We have already helped over one hundred boys and girls in the eastern suburbs schools and Rongotai College with free coaching in 2025. We need supporters to grow and sustain this programme.
Help us promote Rongotai College and its values to the wider community and support the development of young people.
RBA is aiming for Rongotai College to be the school of choice for football in Wellington and to again be the top footballing school in the country, something the school has achieved five times in its past.
RBA considers the Rongotai College values of brotherhood, respect, excellence and pride as core to its foundation. We work closely with the Rongotai College Old Boysʼ Association and we want to be a platform for increased old boy involvement with the school and its local community. RBA is run by the Rongotai BEST Academy Charitable Trust that was registered as a charity in 2025.
We would like to thank the support of Wynton Rufer’s football academy WYNRS, Rongotai College, Evans Bay Intermediate, Rongotai College Old Boys Association and High Performer Building innovation hub and the Eastern Suburbs Sports Trust who have provided funding to assist with the Summer football camps.