From the Head of Sport

Congratulations to all the athletes who have made a positive contribution to the sporting program at BMGS over the course of the year. I thank you all for your efforts. As the year draws to a close please remember that ISA sport returns the first week back at school, which means everybody needs to maintain their fitness over the summer holidays. Have a good break and I hope you get the opportunity to enjoy some quality time with your families.

Basketball 

BMGS Girls' Intermediate and 15 years/Open Boys' Basketball teams this week competed at the Australian School Basketball Championships on the Gold Coast. This is the first time in eleven years that BMGS has sent teams to this event and it has certainly been a very good learning experience for our players. 

The boys were entered in the U17 Division 3 competition and had many competitive games throughout the week. They learnt that basketball is a sport that requires focus and flexibility, especially when the opposing teams are able to mix up both their offence and defence, to ensure that they take home the win. The boys gained a great deal from the Round games that they played and it was great to see that they took all of this into the playoff game against St Augustine’s 17A team. The boys implemented what Mr Quilter had been asking them to do all week and took home a win to end the tournament. Congratulations to the whole team!

Our girls were unfortunate to be put into the Division 1 competition, however, the resilience they showed throughout the week was a credit to themselves, their parents and the school. They learnt that small steps made by all players helps to bring about an overall improvement in the team as a whole. They presented a united front; playing every game to the best of their ability right until the final hooter sounded. Well done, girls!

With the holidays around the corner I encourage both the teams to reflect on what they can improve on in their game, and to continue to develop their skills in preparation for the second half of the ISA season in Term 1.

Many thanks to Mr John Quilter and Mr Jack Bell who coached the teams during the week. Their knowledge of the game and ability to encourage and develop our players is extremely beneficial to the overall development of Basketball at Blue Mountains Grammar. Thank you both!

Netball

Netball is an incredibly competitive sport across the state (and country) with the highest participation levels held for females in a team sport. After a gruelling trial process across four stages, and with more than 300 Representative Netball players from across NSW putting their hands up for selection, the NSW U17 Netball Team was announced this week. 

Olivia Harris (Year 11) -  who has worked for many years to achieve the goal of state selection - has been selected to represent NSW at the National Netball Championships to be held in Darwin in 2023. Olivia has had her heart set on achieving this particular goal for a long time and this is a just reward for the extreme effort at training, games and trials that she has put into developing her Netball skills. We wish Olivia all the very best at this tournament and in her Netball career.

Equestrian 

Indira Sai recently competed at an introductory day for those new to equestrian events to experience what a competition would be like. While she was a bit stressed at her first event, everything came together as the day progressed. Indira learnt how to work with her horse and came away with five ribbons. One First, two Second and two Third place results. This was an excellent outcome and a proud achievement for Indira. We wish her all the best at any future events.

Triathlon

Individuals

Any students who would like to compete in the individual event need to see me at my office before the end of the term. 

Teams

The NSW All Schools' Triathlon will be held at the start of Term 1 2023. If you ride a bike, run or swim and are interested in putting in a team in the Junior, Intermediate or Senior division, please come and see me in the sports office.  I have placed a clipboard on the bench at my office. If you have a team, please list them on this. If you are an individual without a team, list the leg you would like to do.

Distances for each age group are listed below:

Juniors 12, 13, 14 years                     400m SWIM              10 Km CYCLE            3 Km RUN

Intermediates 15, 16 years               600m SWIM              15 Km CYCLE            4 Km RUN

Seniors 17, 18, 19 years                    750m SWIM              20 Km CYCLE            5 Km RUN

Mrs Megan Harris

Head of Sport

Match Results:  Saturday 26th November

Tennis

BMGS Tennis – Round 6 

As I have said over the past few weeks, there is an Odds team and an Evens team in the ISA Tennis competition. For this round, it was BMGS Odds versus BMGS Evens.

We played at the Wentworth Falls Tennis courts with our first three singles matches played on Thursday, 17th November. We thank Neil Geike for standing in for Tien for this match and in the doubles; he will make a valuable addition to our team next year. It was a close match between Jesse and Neil, with Neil scoring a win for the Evens. In the other singles matches, David won his match for the Odds, and Alex got another win for the Evens.

Our next three singles were played on Thursday, 24th November, with some modifications due to the Ken Marshall Art Design and Technology Awards, where a few of the tennis players exchanged racquets for musical instruments.  Raph played against Otto, with Otto winning. The closest match was Hugo H versus Marlowe. After splitting the first two sets, one set a piece, it went to 10-8 in the tiebreaker, with Hugo coming out on top. Jed has continued his success winning his singles against Lee.

On Friday, 25th November, we had our three doubles matches. As this was our usual tennis training time, Nicole was able to see our students in competition mode and was able to get some valuable insight for next year’s competitions as we take a break over the Christmas season. I hope that our players will be able to get some court time over the summer, and look at improving their game. The results were: Jesse and David won against Neil and Eladie;. Raph and Otto had a win against Alex and Noah; Hugo L and Jed came away with a win against Hugo H and Marlowe.  Overall, the Odds Team won 14 sets to 6.

Mrs Catherine Van Gelderen

MIC Tennis