SSP NEWS

Soccer

Wow ! What a few weeks it has been for soccer in Australia.

Matilda Mania has swept the Nation with record viewership across the country watching the Women’s World Cup. The Matildas achieved an extraordinary result coming in fourth place but even more impressive is the way they have captured this nation. Soccer registrations are set to explode, female participation in the sport is also set to rise to unprecedented levels. It is super exciting for the sport !!!!

Our Western Heights soccer program has also enjoyed the hype of the Matildas with more penalties being shot at training then every before and more shouts of….. Sam Kerr, what a goal!!!!!!!  After scoring from distance. 

Our female Senior team is now in preparation mode for the State championships next week. The team have the chance to make history for the school if they were to win the State title in their inaugural year. It’s a massive challenge, but the girls are all ready and excited for it.

As we enter the last month of NPL soccer, many of our students are in the running for a state position to represent Victoria at the National Championships in Sydney on the 3rd of October.

We wish you all luck !

Joey Didulica, Director of Soccer 

Netball 

Our netball athletes had the privilege of having a guest speaker, Emily Shears, founder of the Female Athlete Network who is a registered pharmacist and has post graduate qualifications in exercise sport science, including a Master of Education. Emily presented to WHC on Friday 25th August and shared some very specific and helpful information on Women's Health. She spoke about recognising the importance of education and breaking down barriers when it comes to Menstrual health and the best way to perform and feel empowered by fuelling our bodies correctly through nutrition, hydration and sleep. Emily also discussed common Menstrual health disorders, the interplay of hormones as well as monitoring Menstrual cycles in order to be prepared for daily life as an athlete.

In Education, the player athletes have been completing their General Assessment Task of delivering their PowerPoint presentation on a Netball World Cup team and player of their choice to the rest of the group. The intermediate and senior players have been completing this individually and the juniors are working together in small groups. It has been pleasing to watch the athletes share their work pieces that they have put a lot of time and effort into and observe the growth of their netball knowledge and confidence continuing to develop.

We have been busy in our on court training sessions, preparing for the upcoming tournaments of State Championships for School Sport Victoria for our Year 7 group which will be held on Friday 1st September at Waverly Netball Centre and Netball Victoria School Championships for our Year 7 and 8 selected team on Tuesday 5th September at Melbourne Sports Centre, Parkville.

Across our junior, intermediate and senior cohorts, we have been revising our court systems through throw ins and bringing the ball down the court. In defence, our focus has been fine tuning our defensive footwork, hedging, blocking and being a back up option for our attackers. Our goalers and centre court players have been working on timing, preliminary moves and resetting the ball to practise patience and possession rather than forcing and turning the ball over.

A big congratulations to the Intermediate Boys Netball Team made up of players from a range of sports within the SSP; Jordan Parker (Netball), Sam Langridge (Basketball), Mason Williams (AFL), Maverick Crocker (Basketball), Jack McGough (Basketball), Spencer Smith (Basketball), Malik Davis (Basketball), Jaxon Elzinga (AFL), Lachie Morrow (AFL), Fletcher Pulleine (Basketball), and Brodie Salter (Basketball), for finishing Runners up at the School Sports Victoria Netball State Championships on Monday 28th August at Waverly Netball Centre. 

The results for the day were: Game 1 Vs Wantirna College WON 13 v 12, Game 2 Vs Catherine McAuley College LOST 15 v 16, Game 3 Vs Drouin Secondary College WON 20 v 14, Semi Final v Bentleigh WON 21 v 19 and Grand Final v Catherine McAuley College LOST 21 v 22. A big thank you to Brenna Loe for coaching the team, alongside her helpers of Frankie Willson, Ella Cook and Zahlia Foley.

Stacey Dodds

Head Coach

Basketball

We had five teams compete at Basketball Victoria’s Champions Cup Elite 8 stage this past fortnight. The Champions Cup is Victoria’s elite schools tournament for government, independent and private schools, meaning the best of the best compete against each other. 

For the U15 boys and girls, U17 boys B team, and U19 girls, although they competed hard on the day, they didn’t progress on to the semi finals. Our U17 boys A team did however go undefeated and progressed to the semi final against Marcelin. The boys played incredible team basketball and came away with the win. We are super proud of the boys and their coach on the day, Kaleb Sclater, as this means they off to the state final! 

The state final will be held at Nunawading Basketball Stadium on Sunday 17th September at 3:30pm. We’d love to see as many people from Western Heights as we can come down to support the boys! 

Jack McGough was off representing Victoria at the School Sport Australia Championships in Western Australia last week. The team played off for a Bronze medal but unfortunately went down to South Australia. Representing your state is an incredible achievement, we are very proud of you, Jack!

A big congratulations to current Western Heights SSP coach Amanda Paschal, former student Tanielle Knight, and current students Maisie Corcoran and Addison Baars who went undefeated for the season representing Wyndham in the Big V Champ Women competition. Their grand final was an absolute nail bitter on Saturday! The game went into overtime, but the girls unfortunately went down by 5 in the end. Amanda Paschal finished the season with the Golden Hands award, leading scorer, and is in contention for MVP.

We are looking forward to finishing Term 3 off strong!

Aimie Rocci, Basketball Program Coach