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Senior Sports report

2019 State SATIS 1st Grade Hockey and Basketball Finals

St Mary’s College Hockey and Basketball teams travelled up to Burnie for the State Winter Sport Finals. 

This year, both our 1st Grade Hockey and Basketball teams won their respective Southern SATIS rosters, and with that, qualified for the 2019 State SATIS Winter Sport Finals. Incidentally, Marist Regional College did the same in the Northern SATIS competitions which meant we had a lovely five-hour bus trip up to Burnie on the last Wednesday of Term 3.

The Hockey final was played first and despite the early start and long bus trip, the team was able to match Marist goal-for-goal until they capitalised on a penalty corner making the score 2 – 1 with eight minutes to go. After some great offensive plays, St Mary’s was awarded a penalty corner with two minutes left on the clock. Unfortunately, the shot missed and the ball was cleared out of the circle. Our players rallied together working well as a team and with just 18 seconds left, Chloe Cooper got one passed the keeper to level the scores and send the game into extra time! Thankfully we scored the golden goal within three minutes making this our fourth State Hockey Final victory in a row, which is an incredible achievement.

After a quick celebration and light lunch it was off to the Basketball final at Marist. St Mary’s started really well holding a slight lead going into the third quarter and it was evident that everyone was playing their heart out. Even though the opposition had us beat in height, we kept fighting for every rebound and just as with the hockey, it went down to the wire with Marist managing to hold on to a 39-37 win in the last three seconds of the game. Even though we didn’t end up with the trophy, every player should be immensely proud of their incredible effort and especially in the way they represented St Mary’s.

A big thank you goes out to all the team coaches and managers. Hockey coach, Maddy Curtis was unfortunately unable to attend so Kate Lakos assisted with the help of team manager extraordinaire, TJ Berresford. A big thank you also goes out to Basketball coach Robin Rhodes for making the trip up and guiding our girls to a State Final. Last but not least, thank you to all the parents who have done the countless drop-offs and pickups as well as the thousands of hours sitting and supporting at games over the years, without you none of this would be possible.

Let’s see what 2020 will bring!

Mia Blignaut

Sports Coordinator - Senior School