Sport 

Basketball

Basketball is back! After a COVID disrupted 2020 and 2021 where no basketball was held, 2022 was the year - and what a term it has been for Wantirna! 15 teams across 6 year levels, with 4 incredible staff coaches and a plethora of student coaches to support them. We couldn’t be prouder of everyone’s efforts and the true Wantirna spirit you upheld. Congratulations to both our girls and boys senior and intermediate teams who made it through to the Eastern Metropolitan Region! Please see below our ‘Coach's Rundowns’. 

Coach's Rundown - Danielle Brotto

Senior Boys Basketball

The Senior Boys were the first team to make it through to Eastern Metropolitan Region (EMR) after a massive grand final against Fairhills. The two teams played into overtime with Wantirna becoming 1 point champions at the final siren. Progressing to the next level, the boys were competitive and fought well, just narrowly missing out on finals. Super proud of all the boys efforts across the two days!

Intermediate Girls Basketball

Our girls 9/10 intermediate basketball played amazingly. Our school took out two teams and, between them, we only lost 1 game for the day. Our A team went undefeated, with no great challenge. We are looking forward to the next round of competition, to see how we compare to other schools.

Year 8 Girls Basketball 

With only three teams competing on the day, Rowville East and 2 teams from our school, each team played 4 games for the day. Playing Rowville and our other team twice. Both Wantirna Girls teams had a good day, despite losing to Rowville. The final match was very close and our A team only lost by 8 points. The girls were very supportive of each other, tried their best in all matches and showed great respect throughout the whole day. I was a very proud coach.

Coach's Rundown – Abbey McMahon

9/10 Boys Basketball

The Year 9 and 10 intermediate boys basketball had an amazing day out! Two teams of boys represented the college, and both were undefeated on the day. Both teams displayed great sportsmanship! We are looking forward to our A team competing at the next round! A big thank you to Tameka for helping out on the day!

8 Boys Basketball

The Year 8 boys basketball had a fantastic day out! Two teams of boys represented the college, and only lost 1 game between them. The B team went undefeated on the day, whilst the A team lost only to Rowville Sports Academy. Both teams displayed great sportsmanship on the day, and were guided by our excellent students coaches; Conrad, Herwyn, Charlie & Ryan

7 Boys Basketball

The year 7 boys basketball also had a fantastic day out! Two teams of boys represented the college, and only lost 1 game between them. The B team went undefeated on the day, whilst the A team lost only to Rowville Sports Academy, by a very small margin. Both teams displayed great sportsmanship on the day, and were guided by our excellent students coaches; Jamie & Noah

Coach's Rundown – Tamara Gavazis

Senior Girls Basketball

Along with the Senior Boys, the Senior Girls made it through to EMR! The girls played really well against their division, not losing a game. Unfortunately, they girls lost two games at EMR and just missed out on finals. They were competitive and fought well and we couldn’t be happier with the way they conducted themselves on the day!

Coach's Rundown – Douglas Wu

Wantirna College Year 7 Girls Basketball Team came third in the basketball competition! The team is composed of 8 superstars: Amy Cameron, Capri Hall, Charlie Cinotta, Felicity Zhang, Bella Barclay, Maegan Brooke, Sarah George and Sienna Goodchild.

Three factors were key to our victory over Upwey and Rowville West in the first two games: strong morale, amazing effort, and superb teamwork. We then suffered two consecutive losses to the athletic elites from Rowville East A and B. Luckily, we rallied and won our remaining two games. The game with Boronia was especially memorable as both sides were equally strong. Our large lead was narrowed by Boronia’s sudden comeback in the second half, but solid defence was able to hold them off.

A special commendation goes to Sarah and Capri for their dominance on the court and scoring ability. Bella and Maegan also contributed enormously with their consistent performance. Thank you to Georgia Newton for volunteering her time on the day.

Wantirna College would like to extend a thank you to our coaches – Dani, Abbey, Douglas and Tamara for all of their hard work and dedication across this term. They have put countless hours of their time towards these teams, holding selections, trainings and taking them out on game day. These teams would not be able to go out without the support and commitment of our staff. 

We would also like to push out a massive thank you to our student coaches who not only gave up their lunchtimes to assist with trainings but came on the day and assisted with coaching and scoring. Special thanks also goes out to Lucy McLennan who went along with the Intermediate Boys at the last minute due to some venue changes! Congratulations to all teams, we look forward to seeing you progress both to EMR this year and in your further development in the years to come. 

Division Athletics!

Last Tuesday, 6 September, SSV held the Knox Division Athletics Carnival where we had a whopping 104 competitors and 17 student helpers represent the college.  This is the biggest we’ve had in the last 6 years! We had some massive wins across the board - winning 9/12 of the relays, winning each age group championship and even a record breaker in Year 7 Noah Palmer who beat previous Wantirna student Damon Fairchild's 2011 90m hurdles record of 16.75 seconds with his run of 16.73 seconds. The increase in our participation rates led us to victory with a final points tally of 1,451 - 561.5 points ahead of Upwey who came 2nd. 

The day ran really well with the sunny 16 degree weather being the cherry on top for our first Athletics Carnival since 2019. We are beyond proud of each of our competitors and congratulate the 56 students who progressed through to EMR. 

We would also like to thank Andrew Lewis, Sharni Arthur, Taylor Dougherty, Nathan Rogers and Krystal Shaw for attending the day as officials and supervisors as well as our student helpers – Chloe Roldan, Ella Bately, Ella Long, Ella Thonglor, Georgia Newton, Jeremy Coath, Kai Stoffels, Katherine Styles, Kesiah Rawlings, Leah Talbot, Madeline Brown, Poppy Coppens, Sienna Ponente, Taya Hayes and William Davis – for their assistance. This day would not have gone ahead without your help or support and it is greatly appreciated by the wider Wantirna College and Knox community! 

Good luck to the attached list of athletes for their upcoming EMR competition on the 10th October!

Ultimate Frisbee

What a beautiful day for Ultimate Frisbee! Wednesday 14 September, fresh off Parent, Teacher, Student Conferences, Ms Taylor Dougherty, Mr Stuart Horner and Student Teacher, Tess, took out the two Semester 2 Major Teams classes to compete at the Victorian Ultimate Frisbee State Championships.

The three teams had ripper days, showing off their newly learnt Ultimate Frisbee skills, competing to the best of their abilities and within the spirit of the game. Mr Horner’s A Team Boys made it through to finals and ended up with the bronze, coming 3rd/7 while Ms Dougherty’s girls just narrowly missed out on medals placing 4th.

Ms Dougherty, Mr Horner and Tess are super proud of everyone’s efforts in this unit and congratulate all students on the way they conducted themselves throughout the day.

Mackenzie Le Fevre

AFL Trainee 

Sport and Outdoor Education