SPORT 

SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY Term 1 Week 11 Thursday 7th April 

DIOCESAN WINTER TRIALS

We wish Nate, Frankie and Sarah all of the best for tomorrow as they will be attempting to gain selection in either the Boys or Girls Football team that will compete at the Polding Winter Trials on Friday 29th April at Bathurst.

SCHOOL OZTAG COMPETITION

Our lunch time Oztag Competition for students in Years 2-6 has been rescheduled to tomorrow due to the wet weather that we had last week. On Tuesday, saw both undefeated teams from Round 1, the Gorillas taking on the Lions. This was a very tight affair with a lot of attacking football as well as some desperate online defence. In the end the Gorillas were the deserving winners with a one point victory over the Lions. In the other catch up game today saw the Monkeys up against the Rabbits. With a number of sore bodies from the school cross country held earlier, both teams did remarkably well and against like the first match of the week was a close contest. The ? ended up winning ? to ?. 

The Oztag competition will now be having a break due to the upcoming school holidays. The competition will recommence on Tuesday 26th April. 

In the attachment below is a list of the players in their teams as well as the draw. Thanks to Frankie for doing a lot of work behind the scenes organising this competition.

Sporting Pathways

I have been recently asked by some members of our school community in regards to the sporting pathways that is offered to our students in regards to their chosen sport. I have included a diagram below that summarises the pathway a student can make from the school level, right up to Nationals.

Now to put the information listed above in our context as well as letting you all know when students can start the process of attempting to qualify to go to the highest level of competition in their chosen sports, I will describe how it works with both swimming.

Swimming

A child can represent our school at the Diocesan Selection Swimming Trials if they are 8 years or above. However, unlike the two examples that I had used in the last edition of the newsletter, they are required to swim under a qualification time (for all events, except for relay races) as determined by the Armidale Diocesan Sporting Committe. At the trials, your child will race against competitors from other schools in the diocese in their selected age group on what they are turning this year.  For your child to gain entry for the diocesan team to compete at the Polding Trials, they need to have one of the fastest top 3 times. The diocesan swimming trials do not run finals due to the large number of competitors. If your child makes it to this level, the process is competed again at the Polding Swimming Trials. If the school relay team comes have a time where it is in the top two fastest times, they will gain slection for the Armidale Diocesan Team. The school represents the diocese, not individual students from various schools. Here your child will be competing against the top 2 or 3 qualifiers from other dioceses in the northern half of NSW. These dioceses are: Bathurst, Broken Bay (Northern Sydney), Lismore, Forbes-Wilcannia, Maitland-Newcastle as well as Armidale. If your child places in the top three or two (relay events), they will then represent Polding at the NSWPSSA Swimming Championships, where they will be competing against students from all the educational sectors: public, independant as well as MacKillop (Southern Catholic Dioceses) throughout NSW. Then if they place in the top two (relays) or three (individual), they will be representing NSW at the National Swimming Championships.