Holiday Rugby and Football Tours

After the great performances over the holiday period of our touring teams, I thought it important to hear from some of the boys on their experiences representing the College. The following are recounts of the boys’ experiences, I hope you enjoy their insight.

The Armidale School Rugby Championship 2023 Player Report

William Malone (C) and Zane Young (VC)

This year and like many other past years the Prep 1st XV went to Armidale on a Rugby Tour. This tournament is the TAS Rugby Championships. Our successful trip this year didn’t come easily though, there were many early wake ups on Tuesday and Thursday mornings since week 5 last term. The dedication and hard work from our squad showed how much we wanted a great weekend of footy.

It was now finally Friday, and we had the six-hour car trip ahead of us. We arrived at a beautiful place called The Armidale School. While all the boys were nervous you could sense how excited we all were. We said our goodbyes to our parents and then the trip really started. We put our bags away at the lovely Croft House where we would be staying for two nights, we shared the Croft House with one of our opponents South Toowoomba and the other Scone Grammar. After watching the footy it was time for bed. While we had a few funny stories with our mates before bed, we all got to sleep. At 6:45 AM we were all awake and ready for breakfast.

It was now game time against our first opponent St Aloysius. It was a good game with not our best performance, but we came away with our first win 14-0. Then it was time for Cranbrook. We got a great win 33-0 and Xavier Khoury’s try featured on the news. Then it was time for South Toowoomba, they had a few bigger sized boys, but we defended very well and got a great win 19-7. In our last game of the day, with lots of tired and sore bodies, it was time for St Pius. The St Pats boys pulled through with a great win of 31-7. We were all overly excited after our awesome day but then it was time for the running relay. With our strong squad of four consisting of: Zane Young, Jacob Yacoub, Tom Gorrie and Xavier Khoury. For the first time in St Patrick’s College history St Pats won the relay. A rollercoaster of emotions as we lost to Nudgee College in the heats but in the final, we

beat Nudgee and ended up with the first position. An outstanding achievement that we’ll remember for a long time. We all slept very well that night as lots of the boys needed some well-earned rest. It was time for our last game of the weekend and hopefully a very memorable one against Flinders from the Sunshine Coast, they looked well drilled, tough, and strong but we played one of our best games of the tournament and had a great win 43-7. This means we went undefeated and won our division.

We hope our form continues and we go on to have a great IPSHA tournament. We would like to thank Mr Locke for allowing us to represent our school in Armidale and of course we would like to thank Mrs and Mr Tatola and Mr Fields for being great coaches and mentors in Armidale.

Brisbane Tournament

Alexander Gomesis and Isaac Joseph

We were the lucky 24 students that were selected to represent St Patrick's College at the EREA Football Tournament in Brisbane. Our plane departed on Tuesday 11 of April, and we were extremely excited for the next few days ahead. Our stay was at Nudgee College where the teams were able to bond and share an amazing experience.

On Day 1 of our tournament both teams A and B played three games with great enthusiasm not giving up. The weather was hot and humid, but the conditions didn’t affect our game play and spirit.

On Day 2 both teams made the quarter finals however despite our best efforts the B team sadly lost. It was all up to the A team who played exceptionally well with no goals conceded against them in the whole tournament which led them to be the winning team for the EREA 2023 Football Tournament!!

Apart from the tournament the trip gave us an opportunity to form closer friendships. We thank Mr Locke, Mr McCarthy and Mr Tropeano for supporting us through this experience.

Overall, it was a great few days of excitement and we are proud of our team's hard work and good sportsmanship.

Junior School Supporters’ Day

Please note that it has been necessary to make some changes to the Junior School Supporter’s Day scheduled for this Saturday 6 May. As the new grandstand in the Scientia Building is not quite ready to be accessed by students, there isn’t enough space to seat more than 400 Junior School boys in the Crichton Stand. As a result, a decision has been made to split the date of the Junior School Supporters' Day event for both grades. Year 5 and Year 6 will now have separate events, as follows:

Saturday 6 May – Year 6
Saturday 22 July – Year 5 (sharing with Year 11)

I understand that many families have already made arrangements for the original date this weekend (6 May) and appreciate your flexibility with this necessary change. All Year 6 exemptions that have been previously requested and approved for this Saturday will be honoured. However, all Year 5 exemption requests for this Saturday (6 May) are void, as the Year 5 cohort will now have their day in July.

I look forward to both upcoming Junior School Supporters' Day events. Traditionally, we have been the loudest and most enthusiastic supporters and I’m sure the Year 5 and Year 6 boys will uphold the reputation they have on their respective days!

John Locke

Junior School Coordinator of Co-Curricular

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