From the Head of Sport
Welcome back to Term 4 and the commencement of summer sport. This will be a busy term with 6 rounds of sport commencing on the 21st October. Please ensure that you are only wearing BMGS gear to both trainings and games.
This weekend we have The First V Boys' and Girls' teams competing in pre-season tournaments. All players will be required to have their Firsts uniforms to wear. The Uniform Shop is open on Monday, Tuesday and Friday for students to purchase gear.
Please ensure you check the screens or Sports noticeboard for game times. All students are expected to attend all trainings.
Congratulations - Basketball
Eric Downes (Year 10) has been selected into a highly prestigious national program called the State Performance Program (formerly called National Intensive Training Program) for basketball.
Selection in this program is extremely competitive and it is exceptionally rare for athletes to force their way into this program at Eric's age. When considering he's only been playing for a couple years, it's quite remarkable.
This program is overseen by Basketball Australia and administered by the state bodies. Designed for only 14-18 athletes across the state, the SPP program helps prepare athletes for what is hopefully the opportunity to represent NSW at a national championships.
Congratulations to Eric on this great achievement and thanks to Mr Quilter for all your hard work.
Congratulations - Orienteering
From October 3-5 Alton Freeman took part in the Australian Schools Orienteering Championships in Perth representing the NSW Schools team. New Zealand also take part, so together with the other states, there are around 200 of the best orienteers in junior boys and girls (15 and under) and senior boys and girls (19 and under) categories. Three competitions in 3 days involve a sprint (urban) event, the traditional forest long or classic event, plus a forest relay. The sprint (held at St Aquinas college, Perth) went very well with Alton taking out 4th place overall and, being second Australian, won his first medal.
In the classic event, he performed brilliantly, winning the overall event and was crowned junior boys Australasian champion with a margin of almost 4 minutes in particularly difficult terrain. It proved to be necessary to have a cool head, and with the fitness gained from his running training with Wentworth Falls-based coach Lewis Squadrito, he managed to keep up his speed through the bush and minimize navigational mistakes whilst others around all seemed to falter on one or more controls.
It was further success in the relay (3 runners) with his NSW teammates handing over to him after the first two legs of the event in 5th position. With the second-fastest leg of the day, he overtook 3 other teams to bring NSW up to second place, and a third medal.
With NSW performing well in the other age groups as well, they were awarded the winning overall state, though New Zealand managed to claim the Southern Cross Challenge trophy.
An Australian honour team was selected, comprising the best 4 in Australia in the junior and senior male and female categories. Alton was selected in this honour team and received a special Australian orienteering top as a reward. Since he is only 14, he still has another year in the junior age group before moving up to the seniors.
Congratulations Alton and all the best with all your upcoming competitions.
Basketball
This weekend BMGS will be hosting the ISA Pre-season First tournament. Teams competing this weekend are from Div 1, 2 and 3 schools so there will be some good quality basketball to watch. There will be a BBQ throughout the day so if any players or parents who are free to help out can you please see Mr Quilter.
Mrs Megan Harris
Head of Sport