SSP NEWS

Parent-Carer Evening: Performance Psychology Session

On Wednesday the 13th of November we hosted a free parent-carer evening centred on supporting young people through the lens of Performance Psychology.

We were treated to a wonderful evening that was hosted by Nicholas Richardson - our very own SSP High Performance Manager, David Williams - who is the Geelong Football Club and AFL Players Association lead Psychologist, as well as the current president of the College of Sport and Exercise Psychology, and Rhiannon Sund, a provisional sports psychologist currently completing her final placement at Western Heights College.

We were able to hear first hand about our student-athlete support (1:1 and Group Education Sessions), as well as David’s experience within multiple sporting scenarios on how to support humans to perform at their best and even thrive under pressure.

We had over 40 people in attendance, with many of our SSP student-athletes attending with their families. We are striving to build relationships and partnerships with our whole community, in an ongoing way. If you were in attendance, please keep an eye on your email inbox for a feedback form. We’d love to hear what you thought about the night and how we can continue to improve our offerings.

Geelong United Home Game

Please support our partnership with the Geelong United Women's National Basketball League (GUWNBL) team for the 2024/2025 season. Geelong United is Australia's largest regional basketball association and we can not wait to grow this partnership and support our local community.

It is an incredible opportunity for our entire Specialist Sports Program, but more specifically, our Basketball student-athletes who have been able to scrimmage and train alongside this elite level organisation. We have also recently had a number of the GUWNBL players onsite at WHC providing coaching and mentoring opportunities within our SSP program; Gemma Potter - a starting 5 marquee player, Hannah Hank, Tanielle Knight, Elisa Brett and Taylor Mole have all recently been in our program with our student-athletes. 

GUWNBL's next home game is this Saturday 16th November, 6pm at the Geelong Arena. Please purchase tickets via this link: https://tickets.geelongaustralia.com.au/event/wnbl-

We'd love to fill the stands, so please spread the word!

Renee Lane (SSP Leader)

AFL

Basketball

Netball

As usual, it’s go, go, go in the SSP Netball Program!

Last week Seth Tomlinson took four of our Year 9 student athletes to the Nelson Park Sports Carnival Transition Day to conduct a netball clinic. It was a memorable event, thanks in large part to the outstanding efforts of our year 9 students. They took charge of leading netball-specific warm-ups, drills, games, and challenges, showcasing their planning and organisational skills. Their dedication and enthusiasm contributed greatly to the success of the day.

A highlight of the carnival was a fun game where the Nelson Park students had the chance to throw a ball at our Athletic Development Coach, Seth. This activity sparked plenty of laughs and brought the day to a lively close – even if it did leave Seth with a sore head! Thank you to everyone who participated and helped make the day enjoyable for all.

In education and during on court sessions we have been focusing on the modified netball game of Fast 5. In this style of netball there are only 5 players on court (no WA or WD), the quarters are only 6 minutes, and the scoring is different with the opportunity of scoring 1,2 or 3 points. There is also a powerplay period of 2 minutes at the end of each quarter where 2 and 3 pointers are doubled. It’s a fun, fast and exciting brand of netball and a great focus for our athletes as we head towards the end of the year. 

Last weekend The Fast Five World Series was played in New Zealand. The Australian Women’s and Men’s teams won the series and Alastar Punshon, WHC specialist coach, was named the Grand Final MVP.

We would like to make special mention of our Year 8 High Performance student Levi Tubailagi who recently competed at the Australian Ninja Warrior Championships. He was successful at qualifying for the World Series Finals in July 2025 to be held in Dallas, Texas. Congratulations Levi, we are all super proud of you!

IMPORTANT NETBALL EVENTS

As a follow on from what we have been doing in our sessions, we will be holding a WHC SSP Fast 5 Tournament, where parents are welcome to come and watch. We’d love some supporters there to cheer on the teams. At this stage dates for the Tournament will be as follows;

• Year 7 & 8 - Thursday 21st November 1:30pm-2:45pm and Thursday 28th November 1:30pm-2:45pm
• Year 9, 10 & 11 - Wednesday 27th November 11:15am-12:30pm

Our student athletes will get the chance to experience a day in the life of a High Performance netballer. We will be heading to The State Netball Centre at Parkville to go through a training session, strength and conditioning session and recovery session using the elite facilities at the venue where Melbourne Vixens and all Netball Victoria State/Pathway athletes train. Please look out on Compass for this event.

• Year 7 & 8 - Monday 2nd December
• Year 9, 10 & 11 - Friday 29th November

Most details have now been confirmed for the upcoming 2025 New Zealand Netball Tour. There will be an Information Night for parents/carers and students in Years 8-11 on Wednesday 20th November at 5:30pm in the Green Building. We’d love to see as many of you there as possible so that you receive all the information, ask any questions, and then go away to discuss and make a decision. If for any reason you are unable to attend, please let us know and we can touch base later on with you.

The SSP Netball Team 

Soccer