Sport News

Welcome everyone to what promises to be another exciting and productive year for sport. I am excited to begin my time at this esteemed school. My aim is to ensure we provide a positive, enriching and rewarding sporting experience for all boys across the suite of programs that we offer. I have been involved in schoolboy sport for over 20 years, first as a coach and then as an administrator, but also, just as importantly as a parent, so I appreciate the challenges, pressures, benefits and rewards of school sport. Boys like to win, and as the old saying goes, if we didn't care about winning, why do they keep score, but I believe there is more to it than that. I have three key values that drive my work:

1. We do the best we can to win every game. That includes being well prepared, being organised, being a good teammate (and coach) and respecting the process.
2. We play sport in schools because it is a vital part of a boys holistic education. We get to set goals and aspirations, we get to learn how to deal with success and failure, we get to learn to deal with adversity, we learn to handle our emotions when we do not understand something, such as a referee decision or being benched by a coach, and we get to learn to play in teams and work with others that we might not be friends with. For me, these life lessons are really important for our boys.
3. It is so important that all boys develop a physical literacy, and the best way to do this is to get involved in sports. Regular physical exercise and the development of good physical habits will pay dividends throughout the boys lives. If boys leave the College and continue their love of sports, be it playing, coaching, refereeing or supporting, then we will have been successful. I hope every boy loves representing his school in the sports that he loves.

Once again COVID-19 has impacted us with the later start to school life on campus. The AIC has cancelled Round 1 (Friday 4 and Saturday 5 February). Only our first teams in Cricket and Volleyball will be playing trials on this date against St Laurence's College. The whole program will commence training upon our return to school on Monday 7 February and we will have a full round of fixtures that weekend.

There is an AIC COVID-19 plan in place for Term 1 sports. Each sport will place the guidelines in the College app but as a summary:

1. All sport venues will require everyone to check-in using the Check-in Qld app
2. Hand sanitiser stations will be available at venues
3. Players to come dressed in uniform, limited access to change rooms for toilets only
4. Maintaining social distancing, mask-wearing as per government health directive (mandatory indoors)
5. Indoor venues will require proof of vaccination status to gain access

There will be more information regarding Week 1 sport training posted on the College App before the start of the school year.

I hope I can help support all the boys achieve their sporting goals and look forward to meeting you all during the year ahead.   

Tennis

Andrew Ward, Head Tennis Coach,  MCA Tennis Club - Ph: 0437 449 523

Welcome from MCA Tennis to all our members and students. We hope that everybody has had a well, earned break and have stayed safe during these trying times.

This year we are wanting to get our squad and group structures in place and ready to go for Week 1 return (Monday 7 February) to start our coaching term.

We envisage that this term we will be once again booked fully with coaching from our squad programs, group and private lessons. For students enrolling in our squad structure please make sure to book your private time early to get better time allocations and days.

We are taking bookings now for Term 1, 2022.

Our Squad structure this term will be as follows. Members Price. 

Group lessons 

We are offering Wednesday and Thursday 3:30pm-4:30pm at this stage.

Adult Social Tennis 

We will be starting this on Thursday 17 February and for Term 1 will be free for all members. You will be getting tips from the coaches to help advance your game.

Student Try out days have been scheduled for next week the 2, 3 and 4 February. These are for new students or any student wishing to play AIC in Term 3 this year. This is also an opportunity to sign on for coaching and to meet the coaches if you have not already done so.

• This is not a try out for AIC but more a chance for us to look at new students who think they have what it takes to play AIC Tennis for the school
• The Opens will be for all wanting to play AIC in Term 3 but again not a selection process, but we would like as many players to come along so we can see and start to look ahead with our talent pool.

We look forward to seeing all students who turn up for these free sessions and welcoming all new parents and students to MCA Tennis Club.

For all bookings please email us at MCATennis.qld.edu.au or call the number below.

Student Achievements

As a College we want to recognise the achievements of our students in the sporting world. We will be notified and aware of student achievements in official College sporting endeavours and we will celebrate these in this section, but for external and club sport achievements of a significant nature, we would like to recognise these as well. However we do not know what we do not know, so if your son achieves a selection or success at state or national level please contact sports@marash.qld.edu.au with as much information as you can provide and a photo if possible.

Jackson Grounds (Year 12)

Jackson made his Australian Baseball League (ABL) debut on 14 January, taking the mound as the closer with the Brisbane Bandits as they faced off against the Adelaide Giants in the Down Under Showcase Series. Jackson wore the green and gold, representing Australia in the second series of the Showcase Series against the Brisbane Bandits last week.

Congratulations to Jackson for playing baseball at the highest level in Australia.