SSP NEWS

Soccer News:

Records broken, more competition wins, and a waiting list the size of the MCC — it has been another fantastic week for the Specialist Soccer Program at Western Heights College.

Our Year 7 Girls and Year 8 Girls teams both created history by setting new Geelong Secondary Schools Championship records for goals scored in a tournament.

The Year 7 Girls were simply unstoppable, scoring a remarkable 76 goals across four games as they completely dismantled the opposition with exciting attacking football, creative combinations, and plenty of smiles.

The Year 8 Girls were equally impressive. While they may not have scored as many as the Year 7s, they still produced a historic performance by finishing the day undefeated and scoring an incredible 59 goals. 

The success did not stop there. Our Year 7 and Year 8 Boys teams both cruised to championship victories, executing a high brand of football that has become a trademark of the Western Heights College program.

All four teams now eagerly look forward to the next stage of the Victorian tournament, where they will face strong opposition from Melbourne’s Western Region.

Our Under 15 team competing in the Bill Turner Cup also produced some quality football, winning their second-round match 14–2 in dominant fashion. The team will now face powerhouse Rowville Secondary College away from home in what promises to be a fantastic third-round clash.

Confidence across the entire program is at an all-time high, and belief in the school program has never been stronger. The students’ connection to the school and pride in being part of the program is evident in their confident performances. They enter every game believing they will perform well, trusting that their teammates will support them, and giving 100% effort for one another every time they step onto the pitch.

The students are winning games of football with quality, with a smile, and leaving a lasting impression on all those fortunate enough to watch them play.

High Performance and Olympic Pathway Program

Huge congratulations to WHC Year 10 student Levi Tubailagi from our High Performance and Olympic Pathway Program on an outstanding week of competition at Ivory’s Rock. Competing across four days, Levi achieved incredible results against some of the best obstacle course racing and laser run athletes in the country and internationally.

🏅 OCR Community World Championships 80m Competing in the Pro Men’s division, Levi was the youngest athlete to qualify for the final (top 8), qualifying 6th overall before being eliminated in the quarter-final head-to-head battle.

🥈 OCR Community World Championships 3km2nd place in the 13-19 years age group

🥇 Queensland Obstacle & Laser Run Championships1st place U17 Boys

🥇 Queensland Laser Run Championships1st place U17 Boys

🥇 UIPM Global City Laser Tour1st place U17 Boys

🏃 Spartan Sprint 5km Competitive Race (14-17 years)Currently placed 3rd, with a possible move to 2nd pending official results. Levi also finished an incredible 14th overall out of 914 competitors in the 5km Sprint event.

To top off an amazing fortnight, Levi was also recognised at the Modern Pentathlon Victoria AGM where he was awarded the U17 Boys Age Champion for 2025.

An incredible achievement, Levi. We are so proud of your dedication, resilience and success on the national and international stage! 💙🧡

Free: Parent-Carer Event – The Female Athlete

Dear Parent-Carers,

We are pleased to announce that we are running our second parent-carer event for the year for members of the WHC community.

Emily Moroney: A Sports Dietitian (with a Masters in Dietetics) who has also completed a Bachelor of Health Sciences, majoring in Nutrition and Exercise Science. Throughout her Master’s degree, Emily gained experience across a diverse range of areas including clinical practice, outpatient care, project work, food service, and sports nutrition.

This free parent-carer event will focus on The Female Athlete and supporting your daughter in sport and life.

We would encourage and invite all SSP and AAP parent-carers to attend this event, and please bring along your daughter / student-athlete.

Please see the details below and register via the event flyer (attached) QR code.

Date: Wednesday 10th June

Time: 5.45-7.15pm 

Location: PAF, Western Heights College

Topic: The Female Athlete

Cost: Free of Charge

Note: Light refreshments will be provided to all attending participants.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Team Selection

It is an exciting time for our Specialist Sports Program with over 600 students across the four pillar sports: AFL, Basketball, Netball and Soccer. However, this also creates complexities around team selection for tournaments and competitions. It is simply not possible for all student-athletes to be selected.

Please understand that although student-athletes are a part of the SSP, this does not guarantee automatic entry to any WHC interschool or representative team. Head coaches are responsible for team selection and many factors contribute to this process, including; skill, ability, team dynamics, effort, behaviour and attendance across the entire College.

If any student-athlete’s whole school attendance is below 80%, students will be ineligible to represent WHC. This has been communicated broadly to students and families since the beginning of the year. Please support our processes to engage all student-athletes in their learning at WHC and encourage regular attendance.

We know that non-selection can be difficult for parent-carers, but we thank you for your understanding and support of our program and all student-athletes, whilst we move into a heavy phase of competition over the next three terms.

If you or your child has any concerns about selection or non-selection, we would encourage all of our student-athletes to have direct conversations with their coaches regarding feedback for improvement.

We would also like to remind our parent-carer community, that all sports have multiple coaches and all coaches are responsible for Team Selection – the decision never rests solely with one person. 

Again, thank you for your continued support. We love that your child is apart of our program, and please endeavour to remember the program was established for our student-athletes to reach both their academic and athletic potentials. It is about growth in both learning and sporting pursuits, not who is or isn’t selected for a team.

Congratulations 

Congratulations to Year 10 Specialist Basketball student Elijah Whiteford, who has been selected in the School Sport Victoria (SSV) Team Vic Basketball 16 Years and Under Boys team. Elijah will represent SSV at the School Sport Australia Championships to be held in Parkville, Victoria, from Saturday, 25 July to Friday, 31 July 2026. A fantastic achievement and recognition of Elijah’s hard work, dedication and commitment within our Specialist Basketball Program.

Congratulations also to Year 12 Specialist Soccer students Roko Mammone and Marcus Bei, who have been selected in the Team Vic Football (Soccer) 18 Years and Under Boys team. Roko and Marcus will represent SSV at the School Sport Australia Championships to be held in Melbourne from 26 to 31 July 2026. An outstanding achievement for both students and a testament to their commitment, development and performances through our Specialist Soccer Program.

These selections are a great result of the hard work our students put into their chosen sports and highlight the strength of our Specialist Sports Programs. Our programs are designed to be the vehicle for pathway success, providing students with opportunities to develop their skills, knowledge and experiences to achieve success at the highest levels of school sport and beyond.

We wish Elijah, Roko and Marcus all the best as they prepare to represent Victoria at the national championships.

Netball News week 4 & 5

With term two well underway our student athletes are heading into the competitive season with our junior girls Yr 7 & 8 kicking off their SSV campaigns next week and Intermediate Boys on June 2nd.

We also have many student athletes preparing for the upcoming Netball Victoria Association Championship competition to be held next weekend, we wish all players all the very best in this event which brings together representative players from all the associations/leagues across Victoria. This is also a scouting event on the Netball Victoria High Performance Pathway.

A big congratulations to Milla Eldredge yr 8 who has been selected as 1 of 30 players from within her region to progress and be TID’d to the Netball Victoria Talent Academy Trials for Central West a fantastic effort Milla well done.

We also had year 7 students Avery Pulepule, Naea Jobe and Aurah Maaka participating in the recent 12 girls SSV Central West trials. Congratulations to Avery who will progress to the next stage of these trials in June.

We also have Jack TePaa Yr 9 currently training with the Victorian 15 and under Boys SSV Team in preparation for his upcoming National Championships. We hear that Jack is training the house down, well done on your progress Jack!!!

Over the past couple of months the Specialist Netball Program has engaged with local community associations welcoming in representative players from Geelong Central Netball Association U11, U13, U15 sides and also representative players from AFL Barwon in the Geelong FNL U13, U15 sides and also the Bellarine FNL U13, U15 sides. It was great to have top talent in Geelong in and to experience High Performance Modules and knowledge here at WHC and our High Performance Training Environment, all important parts of the Netball Victoria High Performance pathway.

On Monday we had Anastasia Typou an Australian Taekwondo representative come and present to our year 10 cohort as part of the Australian Institute of Sport Black Dog mental health programme and workshop. Anastasia was fantastic in giving experiences of her own career as a student athlete, challenges and also strategies that have helped her along the way. Students were able to engage with her in Q&A and a lot was achieved in this session.

Week 5 our junior athletes commence their SSV divisional rounds at Kardinia Park. We had two year 7 and two year 8 teams competing against other schools from within the Geelong region. Our Yr 8 competed on Tuesday and both teams were very successful winning both pools comfortably displaying some great skills an excellent teamwork across both sides. Both teams progress to the semifinal and then grand final stage with teams both convincingly defeating Belmont high in their respective divisions.

In the year 7 competition on Thursday again our teams dominated the pool rounds to progress to finals. In the A vision we defeated Bellarine secondary college an in the B division we defeated Belmont high school.

Western Heights College will now have are you 7 and a year 18 that will now progress to the western metropolitan region finals scheduled for Wednesday the 24th of June at Altona congratulations to all players on their performances in conduct on the day.

Our Junior students will head off to Anglesea next week for their Junior Squad camp an exciting annual event where students are challenged and supported, work in different team dynamics and groups and basically have a ball.