Senior School Cocurricular Program
- Fixtures 18 November
- Basketball
- Cricket
- Mental Fitness Workshop
- Rugby
- Senior Swimming
- Squash
- Tennis
Fixtures 18 November
Basketball
Last weekend’s fixtures produced a mixed bag of results, with our C and E teams all facing off against St Augustine’s. After many very tight finishes we came away with six victories and four losses. Our F teams claimed three out of four games, and the Ds split the day 2-2 with St Pat’s.
Our B teams travelled out to Oakhill and had some tough results, unable to claim a win on the day. Our A teams faced off against Central Coast Grammar and had a tough start, with the 13As and 14As going down to a talented opposition. The 15As were able to claim a solid victory before the 17As claimed a convincing win.
The firsts started off slow in the first half but were able to shorten the gap in the third quarter before taking their first lead of the game in the fourth. Some excellent defense and transition scoring from Julian Johnson (15 points), and sharpshooting from Nick Stepanian (11 points), supported by a quiet 11 points from Flynn Pavely boosted the squad to an 11 point victory.
This coming weekend, in the last round of the first half of the season, our A, C and D teams will play Oakhill at home, while our Es and Fs will travel to Castle Hill for their matchups. Meanwhile, all B teams (and the 17Fs) will play St Augustine’s away.
Mr Daniel Garrett - Basketball Convenor
Mrs Joanne Schuster - Assistant Basketball Convenor
From the Basketball Committee
Massive thanks to this community for the incredible response to the cake stall at Oxford Falls last Saturday! An extra $1,500 was raised which will go directly towards strengthening the basketball program!! Thank you to every person for generously baking, purchasing and volunteering on the day. A special mention must go to the people who worked tirelessly to make the day possible - Jen, Jodie, Sonya and Mel.
Please sign up for the basketball canteen at Oxford Falls, here's the link:
The Basketball Committee
Cricket
Training
Monday – ISA (1st and 2nd XI) Squad
Tuesday – U13 (Senior School) and U14
Wednesday – ISA (1st and 2nd XI) Squad
Thursday – Junior School during sport. U15 and U17.
Bus departs OLD Church at 3:20 pm and returns to Anderson Street at approximately 5:30 pm. Players are to be attired in correct sport/cricket uniform. Training is compulsory and part of a cocurricular commitment.
All training is facilitated by Cricket Appeal.
ISA Round 4 – 1st XI v Stanislaus’ College at Bathurst 1st XI 5 for 143 (Patrick Frost 50 not out, Luke Austin 34 not out, Darcy Aylmer 26) defeated St Stanislaus’ College 10/137 (Lucas Gleeson 3 for 19, Lachlan Jurcevic 3 for 19, Jared Fernandes 2 for 19).
The 1st XI travelled to Bathurst for Round 4 of the ISA competition. After losing the toss, the team were in the field first. Patience was required as a 41 run opening stand began the opposition innings. Darcy Aylmer again produced an economical 10 over spell with the new ball. Wickets were taken at a regular interval with very good spells from Lucas Gleeson, Jared Fernandes, Flynn Mansbridge and Lachlan Jurcevic who shared the wickets. Two fine catches were taken by Toby Moran, while Lachlan Jurcevic, Tom Lough, Darcy Aylmer, Andrew May, Flynn Mansbridge and Pat Frost also took a catch each. On his birthday, Ollie Freeman did not allow any byes, wicket-keeping on a difficult wicket.
A top order collapse left the 1st XI in a precarious position at 5 for 57 off 24 overs. Darcy Aylmer (26) played aggressively; but Pat Frost and Luke Austin still had a job to do for the win. Displaying great determination under pressure, the pair played sensible cricket, taking toll of anything loose and rotating the strike well. With an unbeaten 86 run partnership, victory was achieved in the 40th over with Luke Austin launching a six over mid-wicket. Pat Frost had brought up a well-deserved half century in the previous over.
Mr P Rodgers
Round 4 - 2nd XI vs St Patrick's College, Strathfield
The 2nd XI won the toss and elected to bat against St Patrick's on a hot day at Oxford Falls. Rohan Chang (53) and Alessio Spillane (28) started off strongly, putting on a 76-run opening stand before Tom Roche hit 69 off 54, putting the 2nd XI in a commanding position. A steady partnership between Darcy Horstead (24) and Alex Burke (21) along with some lower order hitting from Charlie Chippendale (32) brought the total to a sizeable 8-263. The bowling started off well with Max Lynn (1-15) taking a wicket in the second over along with a brilliant 10 over spell from Alex Burke (4-32). Oliver Costain on debut then took 3-5 to have St Patrick's 8 wickets down. After some resistance from the lower order, Tom Carroll cleaned up the tail with 2 quick wickets, the 2nd XI winning by 180 runs.
Alessio Spillane (Year 10)
Mr David Reay - Cricket Convenor
Mental Fitness Workshop
In the spirit of Movember, please see below a flyer pertaining to a Mental Fitness Workshop being run by the Cricket NSW Foundation.
The Mental Fitness workshop was created by Alan Mantle BAppSSC M.A Applied Psychology who has been consulting to Cricket NSW since 2008.
The workshop is titled What Does It Take to be the Best I Can Be and is designed to provide young cricketers with positive psychology strategies and mental fitness techniques to empower participants with the mindset to succeed on and off the field.
The workshop is open to St Pius X College cricketers. Parents are also welcome to join the two-hour workshop. This is not a workshop exclusive to St Pius X College. Members of the general cricketing community will also be in attendance.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Tamara Lowe from Cricket NSW (tamara.lowe@cricketnsw.com.au) if you’d like more information.
Mr Matt Stearn - Assistant Principal, Cocurricular
Rugby
On Thursday afternoon the senior rugby squad were fortunate enough to meet with NSW Waratahs and Aussie Under 20’s player Jack Bowen, who shared some of his insights and experiences from schoolboy through to professional rugby.
Jack was a Chatswood Junior rugby player who progressed onto the NSW Under 19’s where he was coached by St Pius X 1st XV coach Mike Cross in 2021-2022. He was also part of the Australian Under 20’s team in 2022-2023 and made his Super Rugby debut for the Waratahs earlier this year. He’s now full time with the Waratahs and will hopefully feature heavily in the 2024 season. Jack is not only a very talented young player, but a player with an exceptional work ethic, which is why Mike saw him as the perfect role model for our young players to learn professional behaviours from.
Jack talked about his training, nutrition, personal performance reviews, injuries, rehab, motivations, sacrifices as well as many other things and the boys were given the opportunity to ask questions. It was a great opportunity for all 45 boys in the room to understand just how much hard work Jack put in as a schoolboy player to make it to professional rugby. The overwhelming message from Jack to the boys was that it takes a lot of hard work and commitment to be successful, but that it’s essential they enjoy themselves along the way.
Having now seen the NSW Under 16’s and Under 19’s train a fortnight ago and meeting Jack, the goal is for the senior rugby players to have a much better insight into what standards are required for them to be successful. We are looking forward to seeing them apply some of those lessons over the 2024 season.
Mr Mike Cross - First XV Rugby Coach
Pre-Season Training
The opens Rugby started pre season training yesterday with 40 eager players keen to look forward to the coming season. The dedication shown already will set us up for success in 2024. Well done lads and keep it going.
Mr Martin Gillogly - Senior Rugby Convenor
Senior Swimming
Swimming training has now finished for 2023 and will begin again early in Term 1.
Last Friday evening the St Pius X Senior Swimming squad competed at the annual St Patrick’s College Invitational Carnival at Ryde Aquatic Centre. Out of 8 schools the Pius team came 5th which is a fantastic effort. Nicholas Gladen broke the 50m Backstroke record by 2 seconds and also broke the 50m Freestyle but came second. There were many PB’s achieved throughout the team. They gave it their best for the first carnival of the season.
A special mention goes to Aaron Lau (Year 12 and 2022/2023 Captain) who turned up after he has finished his schooling at the College and assisted with managing the team. He was there after everyone’s race to greet the boys after each of their swims.
Another special mention goes to Sean Goaley (Year 5), Liam Gallery (Year 5), Dominik Playle (Year 5) and Patrick Connell (Year 6) who swam with the Senior Squad on Friday evening to fulfill the lower age groups of U12 and U13. The older boys took them under their wings and gave them more of an insight to the Senior School and to Senior Swimming. Thank you to these four boys and their parents for bringing them along to the carnival. They were full of smiles, personal bests in the pool and a real lot of energy added to the Senior Squad.
Ms Leisa Proc – Swimming Convenor
Squash
Results 11 November
SPX 3 Warming up
SPX 3 Warming up
Mr Joe Madani - Squash Convenor
Tennis
I’ve tabled Round 4 results for both 8:00 am (Blue) and 10:00 am (Tan) teams as well as each team’s points and position on the leaderboard. As you can see, it was a successful day on court with 21 of 32 teams recording a win. As well, a quick analysis of the leaderboard shows that we have 7 teams leading their division and 9 teams in second place which is a terrific effort. I’d like to draw on Mr Casey’s words on Monday’s Assembly about our players putting in the extra effort into playing their best for their team with only 2 weeks remaining. However, sometimes the scorecards don’t always tell the story of the effort that goes into hard-fought matches that could have gone either way. This was the case, for Oscar Roberts, last week and Micah Chan / Lucas Korth and Maximus Boliaris / Linus Magyla (doubles) this week.
Year 10s, Lucas Youngman and Aiden Seifert deserve a special mention for kindly volunteering to mentor and umpire our younger players in the 8:00 am Green Ball Division. This help is an invaluable for the smooth running of the competition. In addition, Lucas and Aiden as well as the other Year 10 volunteers are such fine young men who provide outstanding role models for our younger students.
Mrs Karen Keighery - NSTA Tennis Convenor