Sports

Morris Virtual Cross-Country

When the Morris Community couldn't hold their normal cross-country event, they decided to hold a virtual one! 

Morris Students in Year 3-6 were encouraged to participate in the Virtual Cross Country Carnival to gain precious house points for their house CADBURY, BENSON or COOPER.

Students set off across Hobart (and beyond) to participate in this virtual event. 

The Virtual Cross Country Carnival was the culmination of the Cross Country Unit that the children have been participating in during distance learning. 

The Carnival ran for one week with the focus on PARTICIPATION.

Check out some of the amazing pics! 

How Soccer started at Friends’

I was interested in the article in the Alumni section of the Rose and Waratah Issue 1 2020 on the commencement of Girls’ Soccer at Friends’.  I thought maybe there would be some interest in the way the sport came into the School in the first place.

As a little background, my wife Pearl and I arrived in Tasmania in January 1965 with our three children, Gail, Joy and Peter (all alumni of Friends’) as immigrants from England.  I took up an appointment at New Town High School in the Education Department, which was then a school of about 1200 boys. The School had a diversity of sports with the principal winter sport Australian rules football.  There was quite a strong group involved in soccer (soccer is a corruption of its correct title, Association Football) probably because of the number of European migrants living in the area.  Having arrived from the U.K with a background in the sport – mainly as a referee but also coaching school soccer – I found myself responsible for soccer in the School where there were six teams. 

In January 1966, I commenced as a teacher in the Friends’ Middle School where the Head Teacher was Richard Meredith. Australian rules football and hockey were the sports for boys and I began coaching hockey using soccer tactics.  This was in the early days of the current fluid nature of the game in both soccer and hockey.  On more than one occasion, I discussed with William Oats, Headmaster, about introducing soccer into the School.  He (rightly) rejected the idea as there were three major sports for boys already and the numbers in the School at that point would not support another one.

When I was appointed to the School, I met again two teachers, Mr John Hilditch and Mrs Joan Courtney, who had arrived on the same ship from England.  John was Senior House Master in the Boarding House and Mrs Courtney was the Senior School Librarian for many years.  John returned to the U.K. in early 1968 and I was appointed Senior House Master. We lived in a beautiful house at 20 Carr Street which was demolished in later years and is now a tennis court.  My appointment in the Boarding House was a crucial factor in the introduction of soccer.

As it does today, around that time the Australian Government was assisting countries in the Asian region in various ways.  One of these was the Colombo Plan and we had 6 boarders from Laos arrive in 1970.  There were 5 boys and 1 girl.  They were very studious and a factor in this would have been coping with the English language.  Their native tongue was Lao and they had been educated in French and now were learning in English. Australian rules football was foreign to them and they did not play hockey or rugby either as their sport was soccer.  They were also good at badminton.  After a while, I had further discussions with William Oats and eventually, he agreed to the introduction of soccer.  It grew from there.

Boys’ sport centred around Australian rules with some competition from hockey and, for the older boys, rugby union.  We were given a ground above the Bell Street Oval for soccer, which was on a slope and I had to have the goalposts specially made as per the requirements of the game.  Val Evans was the groundsman at the time and he was immensely helpful in marking out the pitch, etc.  He said that we should use the main oval but there was no way that could have happened as it was dedicated to the main game.  

That is how soccer started at Friends’ and – according to the earlier article – it was more than 20 years before the girls’ teams were able to join the party playing the “world game”!

Article by Rod Tedds, Former Staff Member

Cricket at Friends' 

A recent conversation between Jane Longhurst and Dr Jacqui Triffitt on ABC Hobart has stirred an interest in the beginnings of women’s cricket here at Friends’. 

Read the full article here.

Rowing Coaches Needed

Friends’ Rowing is offering coaching positions for the 2020/21 season. Coaches of both Junior and Senior crews are required. Friends’ Rowing is happy to take on new coaches and provide them with the skills and information they need to perform the coaching role successfully.

For a discussion about the various coaching roles on offer, please contact Head of Secondary Sport, John White at jwhite@friends.tas.edu.au