SSP NEWS

Netball 

Welcome to another week in the Specialist Netball Program. The student athletes across all year levels have been learning the rules and tactics to showcase their skills in Fast 5 Netball, aligning with the current Fast 5 World Cup Series in Christchurch. Fast 5 is an international competition based on netball’s newest format which features dynamic rule changes that include: five players a side, shorter quarters, power plays and super shots. The student athletes have been put into teams and have begun playing one another, putting their skills into practise.

On Monday 6th November, our Intermediate and Senior Specialist Netball Students travelled to the Victorian Institute of Sport in Albert Park to undertake an Advanced Education session in Sports Science, learning the role physiology, biomechanics and performance analysis plays in high performance sport to improve athlete performance as well as exposure to careers in this field. They completed a workshop in performance analysis also. The student athletes participated in various testing in the gym, on bikes as well as undertaking an on-track sprint session and a tour of the VIS High Performance training facility. We had a quick chat with Netball Superstar and Geelong girl, Emily Mannix who was in training and saw other elite athletes/scholarship holders participating in various training, VO2Max testing, recovery activities. A big thankyou to Alex our presenter and the Victorian Institute of Sport for having us it was a great experience

Have a great week!

Susan, Stacey, Ainsley and the Netball Staff

Soccer

What a terrific week it has been for the soccer program. The year 7/8’s and the year 9/10’s have both won the Challenge Cup against Geelong’s original soccer program, North Geelong Secondary.

The Year 7/8’s were convincing, winning 19-0 in the final game, whilst the years 9/10 won 2-1, taking out the series 4-1 in overall games won.

The year 7/8 Girls as well as the Year 7 boys head off to Darebin to compete in the State Futsal Champion of Champions Final.  This comes after winning the States Northern District title.

The students have been training extremely hard over the last few weeks to be ready for this day. We have no doubt that all involved will represent the school with passion and pride and showcase their skills and ability.

Good Luck Western Heights 💪🏻⚽️

Joey Didulica, Director of Soccer

AFL

Kye Wilson (8), Jack Thomson (9), Mason Williams (10) each achieved great results in the YoYo test.

During term 4 four the AFL SSP is running a barrage of testing in strength, endurance, power and speed.  The cohort was originally tested in term 1, analysing these results will give us an insight into development in general athletic ability as the year has gone on.  These results will be available on the end of year reports.

Coming up next week the AFL cohort will attempt the final hill challenge of the term.  The coaches have been impressed with the players’ physical and mental determination to complete each test.  This task has primarily been about achieving something difficult together.  To watch the group strive as individuals and support each other as a group has been brilliant.  

Susie Robinson, Director of AFL 

Basketball

Basketball News

Our Intermediate Girls AND Boys Basketball teams both enjoyed success at the Western Metropolitan Regional Championships, defeating Maribyrnong College and moving on to the State Finals to be held at MSAC on the 13th and 14th of November. We've been training hard on the practice floor and can't wait to get out there and push for another State Championship. 

A small group of our seniors are heading off to the USA for their tour next Sunday 19th November. 

Heading to Chicago, Kentucky, Cincinatti and Los Angeles, they'll be competing against a number of high school teams, taking in the sights and sounds of the different cities and experiencing everything the USA has to offer.

We can't wait!

Kris Blicavs, Director of Basketball