Sport

Sports Report

It has certainly been another busy and successful year in sport at The College. Beginning the year with a successful performance at the Glenelg Division Athletics Sports, we also performed extremely well at the GD Swimming and Cross Country coming a close 2nd in both events. At ICCES level, we had our best performance at the Swimming for many years and at Athletics and Cross Country competitions we maintained our positions. We continue to dominate these events in regards to points gained on the day in relation to our school population and this speaks volumes of the sporting talent we have at our small school. At the ICCES Winter Tour, our boys’ hockey team won their 3rd premiership in a row and it was exciting to see also a senior girls’ netball team be competitive in making the semi-finals in the first year a College team has entered.

In local sport, we managed premierships in the inaugural Under 16 Girls’ Cricket competition,1st Eleven cricket, junior boys’ hockey and Senior Women’s Hockey, Junior and Senior Basketball, Saturday morning Netball and dominated school football as well as the Under 16 College Magpies team going back to back. Our Rowing program continues to grow in numbers and many crews had great success including the senior girls’ quad crew who also won the local Sportswomen’s Team of the Year Award. We have had many students doing so well individually in their chosen sports and making regional, state and even national teams which is a credit to their dedication to the sport.

Some new initiatives this year included the addition of “racquet sports” to the sporting program and, under the guidance of Mrs Ursula Murphy, the number of players involved in tennis or table tennis grew during 2017 and no doubt will again next year. Our senior girls’ hockey team travelled to Geelong College and comprehensively defeated them in what we hope will become an annual event and we had some of our junior basketball teams play at the club championships event at Ballarat. We have also launched our new Sporting Culture Framework and the 5 positive sporting core values/character traits we want to promote to everyone involved in the sporting program and see the students thrive in these key areas:

Commitment – service, communication, teamwork
Passion – pride, enjoyment, determination
Character – mindset, resilience, initiative
Mastery – challenge, achievement, growth
Legacy – sportsmanship, role modelling, memories

I would like to sincerely thank everyone involved in the sporting program at the school. It covers a wide range of sports and relies on the help of many staff members, parents, Old Collegians, community members and of course our enthusiastic students to give the opportunities presented and achieve the success we do. I wish everyone a relaxing and safe holiday period.

Mr Leigh Alexander

Director of Sport

Racquet Sports Report for 2018

The Table Tennis Season finished up on Thursday, December 7th and we had two students, Jonathan Lee and Fitzroy Maclean, playing against each other in the Grand Final. When they faced each other in singles, the game was extremely close with Fitzroy the victor in a 3 – 1 match, one game that normally goes to 11, going to 18-16. For the night, Jonathan’s team was the overall victor, with them holding on to the two, ever-valuable, doubles matches. Kody Roth’s team played off in the semi-finals. At the presentation night, Fitzroy was awarded with an Honourable Mention trophy in recognition of the outstanding improvement he has displayed over the season. Awards presented to the boys were:

Jonathan Lee – Spring Competition Premiers

Jerry Wu – B Grade Championship Singles Winner

Fitzroy MacLean –Winter Competition B Grade Runners Up, Spring Comp Runners Up

Mrs Murphy will be seeking expression of interest in joining the 2018 Table Tennis Competition early in the new year.

Tennis

During the short Term 4 season of tennis, we have had mixed success on the court coming away with two wins. Starting off we went into the end of the winter season a bit rusty and still needing to get into the swing of it. After a few games, the losing margin decreased and going into the summer season we were more confident in our game. Consistent players throughout the tennis season have been Sam O’Shannessy, who has been a very valuable Number 1 player each week; Tayla Kennedy, who has shown great determination, skill and some anger on the court; as well as our star fill in, Nick Gunn, who has proven to a great player and has become a regular in the team. Thank you to these people who have played most weeks and to Ayleish Beaty, Nick Vallance and Abby Hayes who have a played a few games to help make the teams when others couldn’t play.

We also had success in Tennis in the Glenelg District Tennis competition with the following students being awarded medals:

Junior Boys’ Doubles winners, Harrison Hocking and Max Green

Boys’ Intermediate Doubles winner – Reagan Simons and Nick Vallance

Girls’ Intermediate Singles A winner- Ellie Jeal

Girls’ Intermediate Doubles winners- Chloe Anderson and Tayla Kennedy

We are excited that sessions with fully qualified coach, Grant O’Callaghan, will be available here at College in 2018 before school and lunchtimes if the field is available. There are some places still available for Term One. Grant is also running an Australia Open Tennis Coaching Clinic on Tuesday 23rd, Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th of January. Time and age groups of the clinic will be:

4 – 6 year olds 8:30 – 9:15 am, cost $15 per day or $40 for 3 days

7 – 10 year olds, 9:15 – 10:45am, cost $30 per day or $80 for 3 days

11 – 16 year olds 11:00am– 12:30 pm cost $30 per day or $80 for 3 days

Bookings are essential for these clinics. Contact Grant on 0417528502 or more details can be found on the Hamilton Lawn Tennis Club’s Facebook page. Students keen to play for The College next season are asked to alert Mrs Murphy by email as the competition restarts the first week of Term One next year.

Mrs Ursula Murphy