SSP NEWS

Welcome all parent-carers and students to 2025! We are excited for another busy, yet successful year ahead – both on and off the sporting field.

Staffing News in 2025

We welcome Thomas Hunter to WHC who will be joining our AFL program for 2025. Tom has a wealth of experience as a player (Rookie listed to Collingwood prior to a career being cut short from a neck injury) and as a coach, formerly leading the Calder Cannons Football Club, Richmond VFL and Richmond AFLW. Tom is a Gold AFL Accredited Coach and a qualified teacher, bringing a deep understanding of both the game and how to effectively engage and mentor players – we are already loving having Tommy here at WHC as a part of our team!

Susie Robinson is taking a year’s leave, whilst she embarks on a new journey at Port Melbourne Football Club. We will miss Susie, but we wish her well for the year ahead.

Year 7 Parent-Carer Information Evening (Class of 2025)

We would love to invite all parent-carers, as well as student-athletes from our Year 7, 2025 Specialist Sports Program community (including our Aspiring Athlete Program) to an information evening regarding our program, people, structures, and expectations for 2025. It will also be a terrific opportunity to hear from our incredible team of coaches.

Please find event details below and see the attached flyer for further information.

Date:  Wednesday 12th February

Session Times: Please nominate one of the following session times when registering (limited places available in each session)

Session 1: 4.45 pm-6 pm

Session 2: 6 pm-7.15 pm

Where: Performing Arts Centre (PAF), Western Heights College, Vines Road.

Cost: Free 

Registration: Please click on this link to register: https://compasstix.com/e/x8e0oxefdu

*Registration closes: Monday 10th February (please note, we have extended the date to give everyone the opportunity to register)

Key Contacts for the Specialist Sports Program

SSP Leader

Renee Lane – SSP Leader Renee.Lane@education.vic.gov.au

SSP Management Team

Nick Richardson – High Performance Manager Nicholas.Richardson2@education.vic.gov.au

Cate Johnson – Operations Manager Cate.Johnson@education.vic.gov.au

Please contact the appropriate staff / coaches at each of the Year Levels below if you have any concerns regarding your child’s athletic performance;

AFL Program:

Thomas Hunter (Yr 7-9): Thomas.Hunter@education.vic.gov.au

Will Sexton (Yr 10-12): William.Sexton@education.vic.gov.au

Coaching Team: Matthew Scarlett, Brendan McCartney, Georgie Prespakis, Charlie Perks, Ryan Spoors and our two Trainee’s; Dani Rhodes and Cooper Ward-Devlin

Basketball Program:

Ashley Arnott (Yr7-8): Ashley.Arnott@education.vic.gov.au

Kaleb Sclater (Yr 9-10): Kaleb.Sclater@education.vic.gov.au

Kris Blicavs (Yr 11-12): Kris.Blicavs@education.vic.gov.au

*Aimie Rocci will return from maternity leave in 2025.

* The program will continue to be supported by players from Geelong United WNBL team.

Netball Program:

Susan Meaney (Yr 11-12): Susan.Meaney@education.vic.gov.au

Stacey Dodds (Yr 9-10): Stacey.Dodds@education.vic.gov.au

Ainsley Corrigan (Yr 7-8): Ainsley.Corrigan@education.vic.gov.au

Seth Tomlinson: Seth.Tomlinson@education.vic.gov.au

Soccer Program:

Joseph Didulica: Joseph.Didulica@education.vic.gov.au

Sean Mahon: Sean.Mahon@education.vic.gov.au

Melbourne Victory Coaching Team: Jennifer Plante, Sergio Escuadero and Cassian Anghel.

Please note: Any mainstream concerns are via the relevant Sub-School Leader or Learning Community Leader through Compass

AFL

We are stoked to be back in action in 2025! It has been great hearing about everyone's holidays and what they got up to, and equally as good to see everyone back with a smile on their face. There is plenty that lies ahead in 2025 and as a program we can't wait to take it all in.

Staff

New in 2025 we have 3 new members of staff who will working within the program. Thomas Hunter joins us with a teaching background, as well as having been an ex-listed player at Collingwood and the inaugural Richmond AFLW side. He will be working with all year levels, but the main point of contact for students and families in year 7-9.

Dani Rhodes & Cooper Ward join as our trainees within the AFL Program. Both Dani & Coop are ex-students of Western Heights and the AFL Program, and will work with the program's coaches to help deliver the high-quality program our kids have become accustomed to.

New Faces

We welcome all new faces, young and old, to our program in 2025. We have enjoyed watching our new Year 7's find their feet in the big wide world that is high school, as well as all our new students from Year 8-12 finding their way in a new environment. In particular we welcome a lot of new female students to the program, which is an area that we are really proud of and continue to work on expanding.

SSP AFL Team

Basketball

Pictured left to right: Ayisha Balogun (Yr 11), Paige Pititto (Year 9), Jade Chow (Year 9), Neve Terpstra (Year 11), Teddy Whiteford (Year 7), Jake Stefek (Year 11), Eli Whiteford (Year 9), Sam Johns Coach/Educator

Huge congratulations to the WHC staff and students representing Vic Country at the Australian Country Junior Basketball Championships in Albury starting 14th January! Your hard work and persistence have truly paid off, and we couldn’t be prouder of you all. Best of luck in the tournament —go out there and show them what you’re made of!

A huge shoutout to Deng Yak (Yr 9), Rhys Allen (Yr 9), and Ash Arnott (Coach/Educator) for representing Vic Metro, and Steph Whatley (Class of ’24) for coaching Vic Country at the prestigious Southern Cross Challenge!

We are so proud to see our Western Heights College members competing at such a high level. Best of luck to you all—go out there and shine!

Netball

We’d like to welcome everyone back to the SSP Netball Program for 2025 and send a very special and warm welcome to our new student athletes and families that are joining us this year. We hope you all had a lovely break and a chance to enjoy the sunshine and unwind a little. It has been a lovely start to the school year welcoming our Year 7, 11 & 12 Students back last Thursday and the Year 8, 9 & 10 students back last Friday. 

We commenced our Netball sessions onsite at WHC last week where we had a mix of education and gym sessions. We went through an introduction to the year covering timetables, expectations and organisational matters. We’ve also spent some time connecting in education sessions and getting to know each other a little more, especially with our Year 7 cohort.

On court training sessions commenced this week. Although some sessions had to be modified due to the heat, it was great to see our athletes back on court with a netball in their hands and big smiles, looking pretty happy to be back.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and send our best wishes to Yr 9 student Nevaeh Peta who has been selected to represent Victoria at the Australian Indoor Netball Championships next week in Western Australia in the U/16 Girls Division. A huge achievement. Nevaeh has shown great commitment over the past 12 months and has worked super hard on the court, in the gym, and in the classroom balancing her sporting pursuits which has been great to see. Well done Nevaeh and we look forward to following results. Go Vic!

We are pumped for a great year ahead of netball, plenty of learning, so much growth and development, and heaps of fun!! It’s going to be a great one!

SSP Netball Team

Soccer