Houses/Interschool Sport Report

Two girls’ teams have led the way with respect to sporting success for Koonung in the last few weeks.

The Junior Girls Squash Team were state runners up after losing to McKinnon Secondary College in the final at MSAC on Thursday 9 August. Mr Dailey was proud of the efforts of the three Year 7 girls; Taneka Huber, Holly MacFarlane and Natasha Ramfos. These girls had not played squash competitively before but quickly learned the skills throughout the competition and gave it their all. Koonung congratulates these girls for their initiative and willingness to get involved. I hope that these young girls inspire other girls at Koonung to embrace the many sporting opportunities our school offers and take pleasure in representing our school at all levels of competition.

On Tuesday 28 August, approximately 110 students will be competing in the Division Track and Field Competition at Tom Kelly Reserve in Doncaster. I look forward to seeing all our students trying their best for our College at this competition.

Koonung has five students competing at the State Gymnastics Championships in Altona North on Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th of September. We wish them well. Details of how they went will appear in the next edition of the College newsletter.

Interschool sport for Term 3 concludes with the Year 8 (Tuesday 11 September) and Year 7 (Thursday 20 September) competing in Whitehorse Division competitions for Table Tennis, Basketball and Hockey.

I strongly urge students who have been selected to represent our school at these competitions to finalise their payment and consent for these events on Compass three business days before the date of the event to ensure that they do not miss out.

Finally, please take time to read about our latest sports stars featured in this edition of the newsletter. I am always keen to hear about the sporting achievements of our students so that we can share with our community. I encourage you to email me if your child is excelling in their chosen sport.

Andrew Mangonis

2018 Houses & Interschool Sport Coordinator

Senior Girls Hockey

On the 9 August, the senior girls hockey team headed out to the EMR Finals. After a strong warmup and near miss injury we headed into our first game against Highvale Secondary College resulting in a 11-0 win, where strong team work and ultimately great hockey was displayed. We were challenged more in our second game against Ringwood Secondary College where their sturdy defence required smart goal scoring to be put in place. Through Mr Kofoed’s strategic coaching we eventually worked around the defence with a few quick break aways and persistent shots at goal resulting in a 4-0 win. We finished on top of our pool leading us to play Balwyn High School, a challenging competitor that we often meet in the EMR finals. However, we managed to work as a team and won 2-0 in a hard fought game although we felt we controlled the game from the onset.

We headed to the State Hockey finals on 23 August in a fight to claim back to back state titles. While some of us hoped to claim our first state title others were aiming for their fourth title. We knew the task would be a tough challenge. However, all 16 players rose to the occasion and gave everything in the games played. As the majority of the team members are in Year 12, this was our last chance to claim a state title and represent Koonung in Hockey. It has been a fantastic journey playing with an amazing group of players since Year 7, and we have achieved outstanding results. This year, we are proud to say that we have again reached the State Final and were eventual Runners Up.

Special thanks to Mr Kofoed for his coaching and support which was integral to our success. Thank you to Mr Mangonis for his continued assistance in ensuring the team and equipment were ready for the day.

Vanessa Ponza

Fencing competition at Fioretto

Hi everyone,

I had some fun over the holidays representing Koonung SC in a fencing competition. For those that don’t know, fencing is all about battling with swords. There is the Sabre (just think of pirates), the Epee (far more dainty) and the Foil (the sword of the day). We wear masks and chest plates and plenty of padding but we still receive plenty of injuries and bruises. Having said this, it is still fun playing with swords!!

On Saturday 30 June, I represented KSC in a fencing competition at a club called Fioretto. On the day, there were five girls and fifteen boys competing. In under 13 competitions, girls and boys events are usually separate, but because there weren’t enough girls contesting in this tournament, they decided to make the event mixed. Matches up to five, ten or fifteen are called bouts an each group is called a pool. In my pool, I had one other girl (a close friend of mine) who is a member at Fioretto (and an amazing fencer). I won all of my bouts except one (against her) which meant I had a very good ranking. We then had girls and boys separated for the eliminations and I had to fence one girl up to 15 and won, scores ended up as 15-12. This mean that I had won the gold medal in division B and my good friend won Gold in division A! It was a great day and I was proud to represent Koonung.

Taneka Huber 7C

Koonung sporting stars

Callyn Fenwick-Kearns qualifies for Vic Water Polo Cup

Congratulations to Callyn who has been invited to participate in the 2018 Victorian Water Polo Secondary Schools Cup (VWPSSC), a whole day event to be held at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre on Tuesday 28 August, 2018.

In order to encourage participation from schools in the government and non-APS/GSV/AGSV sector, Callyn has been selected as a member of a ‘Melbourne Schools’ boys composite team.

We wish Callyn the best of luck!!

Ryan Howell joins U15 Melbourne Brasil Futsal Academy

After a rigorous trial selection process, Ryan Howell (Year 8) has been chosen as one of the goalkeepers in the Under 15 Melbourne Brasil Futsal Academy team that will be touring Spain later this year. He will be playing the likes of Barcelona and teams from all over the world. Koonung wishes Ryan the best of luck!! Make sure you take some photographs Ryan and try to get Messi’s signature!!

Anna Berrell represents Victoria in Girls 15 Year Football (soccer)

Anna Berrell (Year 9) who has recently returned from Coffs Harbour (NSW) where she represented the Victorian Girls 15 Year Football (Soccer) team from the 16-22 of July in the National Titles. This is the second year she has been selected to represent her state. Her highlights included scoring a goal against Queensland and helping her team achieve 3rd place overall in this Competition. Hopefully, we will see Anna playing for the Matilda’s in the near future!

Taneka Huber represents Koonung in fencing

Taneka Huber (Year 7) who represented Koonung at a recent Fencing Competition. Read her report in this edition of the newsletter to see how she went and what is in store for her later in the year.

Andrew Mangonis

Thank you to the Koonung community

In Term 1, the Koonung community helped collect 18613 vouchers for the Coles Sport for Schools Program. This was a truly amazing effort!

Last week, I was excited to receive the delivery of the sports goods our school chose to redeem with these vouchers. Specifically, our school ordered:

4 synthetic junior footballs (AFL)

4 synthetic senior footballs (AFL)

5 size 7 basketballs

10 PVC 2.4m skipping ropes

5 size 5 netballs

1 squash racquet

3 squash goggles

9 high bounce balls

1 futsal ball

12 table tennis bats

4 size 5 soccer balls

4 youth size tennis racquets

Thank you to all the 7F students who took time out of their PE class to take a photograph with all this equipment.

Some of this sport equipment has been made available to the Middle School and Senior School for students to borrow at recess and lunchtime.

The remaining equipment will be used in Interschool Sport competitions and Year 7 and 8 Sport Education classes.

I trust that students will take care of this equipment so that as many students as possible benefit from the acquisition of this equipment.

Andrew Mangonis

Wellbeing & Student Engagement

Parent information sessions