SUCCESS STORIES

MCKINNON STUDENTS GIVE A STELLAR PERFORMANCE AT THE AUSTRALIAN YOUTH VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS 

We are thrilled to announce that the Victoria U16 Blue Team, led by Year 9 McKinnon students Jayvier Yang, Michael Gordeyev and Braden Fischer, have earned the silver medal at the 2024 Australian Youth Volleyball Championship - Under 16 Men category.

This incredible achievement is a testament to the team's exceptional volleyball skills, unwavering dedication, hard work, resilience, and teamwork. They fought their way to the grand final, facing the undefeated Queensland Maroons U16 team. The match was a nail-biter, with Victoria winning the second set with a record-breaking score of 36-34 and pushing the game to a thrilling five sets. 

While Victoria ultimately fell in the final set, they earned the respect of their opponents for their relentless fighting spirit and refusal to give up.

Our congratulations to all the team.

OBOIST ISAAC WONG

Isaac Wong of Year 8 started playing the oboe at the age of 9 in Hong Kong before moving to Melbourne two and a half years ago.

He is presently studying between Emmanuel Cassimatis and Martin Lee and completed his Grade 8 comprehensive oboe exam last year, passing with honours. Isaac currently plays with the Australian Youth Band and will audition for the Melbourne Youth Orchestra next year.

Isaac Wong will be performing in the final of the 3MBS "The Talent" competition on Tuesday 22 October. 

Here is a link to his performance from September that got him to that final.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-talent/oboist-isaac-wong-and-pianist-jacob-wang?in_playlist=podcast

We wish Isaac all the best for his upcoming performance.

Kelly Payne

Publicity

MCKINNON STUDENTS SHINE FOR TEAM VIC IN THE FUTSAL NATIONAL SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Australian Futsal Association National Schools Championship was held in Brisbane from 27 - 30 September.  Please read below a first-hand account from one of the team, Miri Karro:

Earlier this year the Year 8 McKinnon Futsal team attended the AFA West Melbourne Futsal Competition. From this competition our entire team were scouted to represent Victoria in the Australian Futsal Association National Championships held in Queensland. Four students accepted the offer, Ella Malhotra, Miri Karro, Chloe Jiang, Alana Chisango and Mrs Karro as the Coach. These four students were representing Victoria along with five other students from other schools. We trained once a week for eight weeks up until the competition. 

On Friday 27 September the competition commenced, we were all nervous as the competition was very strong but we were also excited and happy to play. Our first game was against Northern New South Wales, and it was a very tight game. We were down 1-2 at half time but we were determined and never gave up, winning the game 4-3. 

Our second game was against Queensland city where we dominated the court. We played so well, our passing was immaculate winning the game 7 - 2. Our third was against Queensland South Coast and another victory for us. Our fourth game was against Queensland North Coast and our fifth game was against Queensland Country where we dominated both games once again, winning 7-1 and 6 - 0. We won both the Semi Final and Quarter Final taking us into the Grand Final. 

This was our moment, but we were so nervous and excited at the same time. The game started and we weren't playing our best. The score was 0 - 3 and a timeout was called. Mrs Karro gave us some inspirational words and told us to play how we have been playing and not to be nervous. We were determined to come back and we made excellent passes that ended in goals, half time score 3-3. 

The second half was intense with both teams playing very well, full time score 4 - 4. Captains were called over to the ref and were told there was an extra ten-minute golden goal, whoever scores first wins. Even though it was stressful we all stayed calm. In the 3rd minute we had possession passing down the wing and in the box we tried to shoot, it ricochet off their defender and Alana Chisango scored the winning goal. We were all ecstatic.

After the tournament three girls from McKinnon were selected to be in the Australia All Stars team representing Australia in Brazil next year in August. They are Miri Karro, Chloe Jiang and Ella Malhotra.

On behalf of the team I would like to thank Mrs Karro for her leadership and dedication. We couldn't have done it without her. I would also like to thank the parents for taking us and supporting us on the sideline. 

Miri Karro, Year 8