Sport: Lawn Bowls 

It was a big day yesterday for our Junior Boys team at the SSV (School Sport Victoria) State Lawn Bowls Championships at Club Sunbury in Melbourne. 

The boys (Year 8s Clarence Lampa, Jeremy Bagley & Zach Wills) were aiming to become our 1st State Title winning Lawn Bowls team in 22 years - since Year 12s Daniel Barassi, Jordan Fisher, Judd Porter and Rob Smith clinched the Senior trophy in 2002, incredibly, for the 2nd year in a row.

They finished with a 1-2 record for the day, defeating Camperdown College (5-4), a country school from near the Great Ocean Road. They however went down to Vermont Secondary College (1-8) and Maribyrnong College (2-7), both City schools with approximately 1500 students, and in the case of Maribyrnong College, a school who has half of their enrolments there on Sport Scholarships with the MSA (Maribyrnong Sports Academy).

The boys were exemplary across the day, showing excellent sportsmanship when interacting with their opponents, representing our school with aplomb. To finish 7th in Victoria is something to be proud of.

Thanks boys for your efforts yesterday, starting with a 5:00am alarm, hitting the highway at 6:00am, then returning to Wangaratta at 5:00pm. The boys also showed initiative in the lead up, with Clarence contacting the Wangaratta Bowls Club and arranging times to practise at the greens on half a dozen occasions striving to improve their skills.

Big thank you to Principal Dave Armstrong for lending us his car for the drive.

Thanks to Lars Croft who attended as Team Support.

We appreciate the Wangaratta Bowls Club for lending the boys bowls to play with, and allowing them to practise a number of times since they won the Hume Region title in March.

Special thank you to club member Maurie Braden for helping train them. There is also a bit of W.H.S history intertwined, with Maurie's son Aaron being a member of our last Senior Football State Champion team in 2003. Coincidently, Aaron 4 years later would be teammates with Porter (who was Captain) in the Wangaratta Magpies back-to back Senior O&M Footy premierships in 2007-2008, their first since 1976, 31 years prior.

Jud Mullins

Sports Coordinator