From the Head of Sport

What a successful week Blue Mountains Grammar School had last week. At ISA Grand Finals BMGS was successful in taking out a clean sweep of premierships.

Congratulations to the Junior Boys' Touch Football team and the 15A Boys' Basketball team (below) and Open Girls' Basketball teams. All of the games were extremely exciting and it was great to see the amount of development that has occurred over the course of the season. Thank you to all those who made the effort to attend games and cheer on our teams. Thanks also to our MICs and coaches who have supported our players all season.

As well as ISA Sports, last week BMGS sent a team of athletes to compete in the Australian Interschool Mountain Biking Challenge at Thredbo where they came 73/294 schools. This was a great experience for all involved and I would like to thank Mark Rutherford for the time he put into getting this team off the ground. I look forward to BMGS being actively involved in this event in future years.

Congratulations - Mountain Biking

Australian MTB Interschools Championships – Thredbo (by Mrs Katie Rutherford)

"What a great time we had at the Australian MTB Interschools last week held in Thredbo. BMGS had ten students representing in all the events, unfortunately Otto Paslow was injured and unable to compete this year, however, our other students were Lucas Rutherford (Div 4), Fabian Boda-Tulogdi, Marlow Terry, Xavier Johnson (all Div 3), Oliver Rutherford, Neil Geikie, Finn Snedden, Dylan Robilliard (all Div 2), and Jett Fendall (Div 1).

The boys had to deal with all weather events, including gale force winds, rain, sleet and warm sunny days.

*Photographs appear courtesy of Outer Image Collective

Overall BMGS placed 73 out of 294 schools resulting from points earned for students’ final places. Top places were Fabian who finished 6th in Cannonball, Oliver placed 7th in the X-Country and Lucas who placed 6th also in the X-Country. The Division 2 boys also placed 3rd as a BMGS team result for the X-Country event!

Thank you to all the parents who transported, watered, fed and medically attended to all the students throughout the week."

ISA Swimming Carnival

Thank you to all those students who attended the ISA Swimming Carnival this week. It was good to see the effort invested by all and the willingness of students to fill in for those who did not attend. The Swimming Team does require a team effort and those who attended on the day really stepped up to help the team.

Cross Country Carnival

The BMGS Cross Country Carnival will be held on Wednesday, 5th April. Further information will be provided in the next Newsletter.

Presentation Evenings

Our Summer Sport Presentation Evenings will be held in Week 10. If you have been taking photos throughout the season can you please arrange to pass them onto your MIC so that they can use them as part of their presentation evening.

Tennis/Cricket Lunch – New date TBC due to Wild Ed commitments of some players.
Touch Football: 3rd April – Coote Hall
Basketball: 4th April – Cuff Hall

Mrs Megan Harris

Head of Sport

Match Reports, Saturday, 11th February

Touch Football

Senior boys were defeated by Oakhill College

Despite only having seven players for the season, the Senior Boys' Touch Football team lifted and made their way to the Semi-Finals. We would like to congratulate the boys on an excellent season of training and games in which they pushed themselves, and each other, in order to achieve the best possible outcome.

Although they played a strong Semi-Final, the team ultimately struggled with their lack of subs and were defeated on the day by Oakhill College. They should be commended for both their attitude and performance on the field and are encouraged to continue to practice and develop their skill levels before the next season. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for you for next time!

Junior Boys defeated St Augustine's

The Junior Boys' Touch team had an excellent and nail-bitingly close Semi-Final, where they pushed themselves and came away with the win, advancing to the Grand Final. Coming up against St Augustine's in the GF was important to these young boys, as they’d played them twice throughout the season, losing once and drawing once.

The development and improvement of each and every young man in the team meant that they came away with the win at the end of the day. The game was full of back-to-back tries and eventually resulted into going into extra time and playing ‘drop off’, in which our boys pushed themselves and managed to score the winning try! The excitement was extraordinary and we would like to congratulate and applaud this team on their commitment and conduct throughout the season. The way the boys were always demonstrating good sportsmanship and supporting each other to the best of their abilities, led to this much-deserved to winning end to the season. I can’t wait to see you all back next year!

Resha Tandan

Boys' Touch Football Coach

Tennis

BMGS Tennis – Singles Championships

For our singles championships, each of the four schools had four players. Each player was Seeded and then placed into four pools, where they played the three other players in their pool. It was the first to four games with a tie break at 3-all. Following the games in their pool, there was a knockout competition for those from 1 to 8 and then 9 to 16.

Being quite new to the game of tennis, it has been wonderful to see the improvement in Alex’s game, particularly this year, who I am sure that hehas gained a lot from this experience. Alex reached the Quarter Finals in the consolation games.

Neil won all his three matches, placing him first in Pool B. I thank Neil for his commitment to the team, only returning from the Mountain Bike Championships in Thredbo late on Friday night and yet turning up early in Lithgow on Saturday morning. He had a good win in the Quarter Final but lost in the Semi-Final.

Jesse and David won two of their three games, placing them second in their Pool group. David has been consistent throughout the whole season, but his good run came to an end in the Quarter Finals. Jesse played well, winning his Quarter Final but was beaten by the eventual winner in the Semi-Final.

My congratulations to the boys. I am immensely proud of the way in which they conducted themselves, showing good sportsmanship and tennis etiquette at all times.

Thank you to the parents who provided transport and then stayed around for the whole day, including Jo, Bronwen, Neil and Arman.

Thank you also to our wonderful coach, Nicole. All of the team has learnt a lot from her vast experience and knowledge.

Mrs Catherine van Gelderen (MIC Tennis)