Boarding News

Congratulations to our La Valla Residence boarders who represented Marist College Ashgrove so well down in Yamba last weekend. In what was a rugby tour of sorts, the Year 6 and 7 La Valla boys combined to put together a ‘dorm team’ to play against the Yamba Buccaneers Under 13s. Coached by their Boarding Coordinator, Mr Sedgwick, the boys put on a spirited display in front of many locals who came out to watch the exhibition game. The touring party enjoyed a sleepover in the Buccaneers’ clubhouse which was exciting and a great experience for this group of boys who are so early in their time at the school. We look forward to an annual rugby union game against the Yamba Buccaneers and other teams from that region. It was also great to catch up with our current and future boarding families who came along to watch the game.

We have some other trips planned as part of our Boarding Regional Tour schedule this coming weekend. Good luck to our Year 6 boys who are travelling out to Goondiwindi to play against local club ‘the Emus’ on Saturday. We also have an Under 15 and an Under 18 boarder team travelling to Emerald to participate in the Western Sevens Rugby tournament. Our boys and staff are looking forward to this trip where Marist Ashgrove will be competing against many other schools in the sevens format. Good luck to both teams. I am sure they will represent the school well.

We also have a new event in boarding happening soon which many of the boys are looking forward to. The inaugural City vs Country rugby league game for boarders is being held on McMahon Oval on the afternoon of Tuesday 9 August. The timing of this event is deliberate, with it being the same afternoon that many parents and guardians will be coming to the College to pick up their boarder son for the Ekka holiday break. The aim of the City vs Country game is to bring our whole boarding community together to enjoy watching an entertaining game of footy played by our Senior boarders. A great deal of planning is being done behind the scenes to ensure the event is successful and enjoyable and we look forward to bringing in this new event for our boarders. It is just under a fortnight away.

I also want to mention that our tutoring program for the boarders has commenced again as we get into Term 3. For each Boarding Residence, we have a minimum of two staff members who provide academic support to that group of boys of an evening (in many cases it is three staff members per Residence). This academic help is available to the boarders each night between Monday and Thursday and they are regularly encouraged to make the most of this great resource. Our tutors come from different backgrounds, with some being teachers in the day school at MCA, some who are teachers at other schools, and some who are studying at university with particular skills to help the boys. In addition to this, our boarders are very fortunate that our Teacher Librarians, Mrs Stirling and Mrs Crowley, teach a study skills program to each year level in the evenings during Study time. This proactive assistance is of great benefit to our boarders who learn many skills and strategies to assist with their assessment pieces and to help them generally to become a better student. I am very grateful for the assistance of our Boarding Tutors and our Teacher Librarians who add a great deal to our boarding program.

Sunday Night Mass

Around the Grounds

Montagne Residence - written by Toariki Netzler

The dorms’ weekend kicked off well on the sporting field on Saturday with a confident win against St Laurie's for the Year 9s. Finn Brennan and Matt Lyons were both strong with Finn being rewarded with a meat pie. The Year 8 League team also had a nice win to start off the season featuring Joe Murphy (Ewan Wood injured) even with the heavy showers cancelling trainings throughout the week. Jono Kirk, Makenzie Bowen and Aiden Lau all feature in the 8As basketball. A disappointing loss for the boys as they went down by 2 points. Most of the U15 boys from our residence are set to travel all the way out to Emerald to participate in what should be a thrilling Qld Rugby Union 7's tournament. A special shout out to Isaac McDonnell for catching a dub in a nail-biting tie-breaker in his Tennis match over the weekend. Noah Beck and Isaac then teamed up to grab a win from two games in doubles matches.

Christian Gehle started Army Cadets this week, we wish him all the best!

One of our supervisors, Mr Devoy, has sadly lost a member of his family in the past week. We pray for Mr Devoy in his time of need.

Hermitage Residence

What is great about (and there are many reasons) being a boarder is the endless access and opportunities to be involved in any number of areas. It has been wonderful to see a number of boys engaging in Term 3 cocurricular. Boys are making the most of Tennis, Rugby League and Basketball. Great to hear stories of victories throughout the weekend for those in 4th Tennis, Year 9 and Year 10 Rugby League along with 10D Basketball. Athletics season is also upon us and it has been great to have a variety of boys from across the dorm express their interest in either track or field events.

Shout to Finn Manning who this week put his younger brother (Sean) ahead of himself to ensure he had phone access on his recent trip to Yamba. A great example of what it means to be Marist!

Despite the return of the cooler weather, the attitude and application amongst the residence continues to be positive. Personal area continues to be a focus. The return of strong routines and consistent routines are invaluable. It has been great to see many boys making the most of the inhouse facilities of pool, table tennis and the common room. Many loyal Broncos fans huddled around the television for Thursday night football last week to see them jump into the top 4.

We extend our best wishes to a large number of our Year 9 lads who are heading off to Emerald this Thursday to represent and promote the College at QRU Western Sevens. We look forward to sharing their experience. Finally, I would like to congratulate the following boys on their fine academic achievements for Semester 1. Ignatius Hallman and Dom Forbes who achieved an outstanding GPA of A-. Great work lads.

Fourviere Residence

Week 2 saw plenty happening for the Fourvière faithful with a major highlight for the year 11 group being the array of leadership challenges and activities that took place throughout the day on Tuesday and again on Thursday afternoon. This proved to be a great opportunity for the boys to think about how they would like to contribute as senior leaders moving forward into next year. We were also paid a visit by a popular guest speaker and advocate for teen safety and awareness, Paul Dillon, who delivered an insightful presentation, offering the boys plenty of relevant and factual safety advice including the value of ‘water-time’.

Round 1 of Term 3 AIC sports got underway at the weekend and as always, it is great to see good numbers of lads keen to be involved. Representing the College in their respective sports are: Harry Thompson, Cody O’May, George Wood, Leon Karena, Jack Haddad, Atticus Armstrong, Keli Law-Palm and Lachy Manning all playing Rugby League. Hamish Wilson, Caylis Bellman, Emmanuel Yasi, Kaden Cerfonteyn, Alex McNamara and Luca Martinuzzi playing Basketball and John Murphy playing tennis. A trip to the Bull Riding at Caboolture was a hit on Saturday evening.

Special shout-outs go to Hunter James and Patty Manning (Year 12) for giving up their Saturday night to accompany an injured Cody O’May to the hospital. Joey Gibson who has managed to maintain a neat and tidy area for the week and to George Wood who holds the dorm ‘Rider’ record of 166 at present.

Br Terence Residence

The Year 12 residence is always a great place to be following the Year 12 Retreat and this has certainly been the case again this year. With the boys returning to their normal weekly schedules, they have approached all facets of school life with great dedication and also a sense of appreciation for their opportunities. Many of the boys have put in countless hours of preparation for their upcoming exams in Week 4, with a number of boys such as Harry Masel, Elliot Gubby, Hugh Faggotter, Archie Forbes, Lachy Killen and Frank Baker spending a large portion of their free time on Saturday evening to ensure that they are well-placed for their looming assessment tasks.

During the week, our entire Year 12 cohort were privileged to hear from Drug and Alcohol expert Paul Dillon who provided valuable insight for our Year 12 students about how to best manage the challenges of being a 17 or 18 year old in today’s society. There were many important lessons for our boarders and I am sure that these will be useful for the boys well into the future.

Over the weekend, a large number of our Year 12 boarders represented the College across basketball, tennis, hockey and rugby league yet again. While our boys’ involvement is not all about the College’s flagship teams, it is timely to congratulate our Year 12 boarders who have been selected in these teams. In basketball, Brent Humphreys and Ethen Tsiamalili are representing the 1st V while in hockey Sam Carroll and goalkeeper Spencer Sharman took to the pitch on Friday afternoon. Frank Baker was our representative in the victorious 1sts tennis team on Saturday and a long list of boarders have been selected in the 1st XIII rugby league team for the AIC season: Thomas Young, Connor Lyons, Jack Billing, Reggie McMillan, Daniel Witt, Archie Forbes and Jimmy Boland. Congratulations boys and we wish you well for the season ahead.

Recreation Report - Mr Blair Whitlock

Week 2 saw the Club's Program click back into gear with music, fishing, boxing, squash, golf, mountain biking and cooking on offer. The go-karting boys have been hard at work for a couple of terms and are looking forward to their challenge day in Week 9 this term. Thanks again to Mr Devoy and Mr Dempsey who give these Year 9 and 10 boys this fantastic opportunity! Preparation for this year's Night on the Green musical event has also begun. This is a traditional boarding event that we do with the Year 11 and 12 Stuartholme boarders to showcase the musical talent throughout boarding. The stage is open for any group confident enough to give it a crack and it’s been great to see Year 8 and  9 bands getting together for extra practices already. Here is a link to last years event to give you a better idea of how the evening looks - https://youtu.be/MNWz_JYISlM.

The weekend kicked off with a boarders arvo feast before heading down to the grandstand for a community BBQ. The Year 10s were in charge this week and did a cracking job with burgers, skewers, snags and salad on the menu. We headed up to the gym for a few games of basketball before retiring back to the dorms for Friday night footy. Saturday saw round one of the AIC basketball, tennis and rugby league seasons. The Hive assembled to support both the premier basketball and rugby league teams in their games against St Laurence’s College. While results didn’t go our way it’s great to have sport back and we look forward to bouncing back against St Edmunds College this weekend. On Saturday night a group of 20 boys jumped on the bus and headed off to the Professional Bull Riders Caboolture Show. It’s the first time we’ve attended a PBR event for rec and the boys loved it. Any excuse to get their cowboy kit on! Taking photos with the friendly Monster staff was also a highlight for some.

On Sunday we had a visit from the Somerville House boarders for some games and a BBQ lunch by the oval. We had lawn bowls, croquet, spikeball, crossnet and touch footy on the go which proved to be good icebreakers after a quiet start! The boys enjoyed seeing the Somerville girls again and we look forward to our R U Ok Day social with Somerville later in Term 3. A quick bike ride up to the Blue Nurses jump park rounded off the weekend before grabbing a Sunday roast and heading off to Mass.