Sport News

Sport plays a vital role in the development of young men of character. This is the single most important reason we play sport in schools like ours. It is nice to win trophies and no one is prouder than I am of the students I have worked with in my career that have gone on to sporting success, but schools are here to educate first and foremost. For every John Eales and Matthew Hayden, there are tens of thousands of students who have played sport at Marist for the camaraderie, the memories, the growth as young men and the opportunity to represent their school. As a College, we have two key responsibilities to all the boys who want to play sport. First and foremost, we need to provide opportunities for them and, secondly, we need to challenge them to be better, better athletes, better teammates, better men. In my view, if we take care of these two factors the winning part takes care of itself in a boys school. Provide the opportunity and provide the knowledge and experiences, and the result takes care of itself. 

I thought the start of the new season was an opportune time to share our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for sport. These values are for me the importance of why schools play sport. Each of these are of equal value.

1. Every team to be top 3 in their division and the program to be 1st or 2nd in the aggregate. All First teams to be competitive, aiming for a premiership at least every 3 years.
2. Every boy develops a love of the sport through their experience at Marist. That we provide opportunities for boys to develop skills, represent the College and play with their friends.
3. Every boy develops life skills through playing sport. These include being a member of a team (with boys they may not be friends with), setting goals, dealing with adversity (including being dropped, disagreeing with a referee decision), learning how to win with grace and lose with dignity and respect and challenging ourselves to get out of their comfort zone. 

Term 3 presents unique challenges as the nature of the AIC calendar means that all sports on offer in trimester 3 competition have limited numbers of teams- rugby league has one team per age group, though this will expand over the coming years as we add B teams sequentially, tennis has 2 teams per cohort and basketball is limited to four teams per cohort. Basketball is clearly the most challenging as the sport itself has seen significant growth over the last 10 years in Australia. Factors that affect the number of teams we can cater for include court space, training space/time, AIC teams are generally the same so no gaps in other schools draws (this is how our cricket and rugby teams get games), access to coaches, opposition to play against at the lower/social level. The GPS schools used to be an option for us but they now manage their supplementary matches internally. In addition to this we offer hockey, though it is one team for hockey specialists, and track and field training has well and truly commenced and is open to any boy who wants to give it a go.

In order to provide sporting opportunity for boys who miss out on AIC sport we are working on internal basketball and touch competitions behind the scenes and are close to being able to release sign-up information about these. These are likely to be Saturdays over five weeks finishing in alignment with the AIC rounds. As an additional reward for the touch, there is an AIC invitational one day touch carnival in Term 4. We will use the internal touch competition to select Marist teams to compete at that competition and represent the College.

Term 3 opportunities is a challenge. All AIC schools have acknowledged that is a problem, however, even though we are not the biggest AIC school, the challenge is greater for us than the others due to our participation rates in sport.  

Hockey

Ms Kathryn Badini - Hockey Coordinator

The first game of any sport can help to define the season, and the Marist Hockey team had an absolute blinder of a first game; not because it was an easy win but because of the grit they showed. We played against our fellow Marist school, Mt Maria College (who also had a few club players from Hillbrook Anglican School), on Friday afternoon at the State Hockey Centre. In a snapshot – we were two-nil up with early goals coming from Matthew Alverez (8) off a short corner and Nick Keir (12). Then, into the second half when we were 2 – 5 down with 15 minutes to go, a goal came again from Nick Keir, but all other attempts were unsuccessful, and our frustrations, grew. 

I’ll write out the time stamps here for what happened next because it’s hard to capture it –

4:12 to go – Matthew Alverez scores off a corner 4 – 5

3:10 to go – Nick Keir scores 5 – 5

2:13 to go – Isaac Pratt (11) assists Harry Cunynghame (12) to score 6 – 5

1:17 to go – Defend back-to-back short corners

14 seconds to go – Matthew Alverez scores assisted by everyone on the field Final score: 7 – 5

Turning a 3 – 5 loss into a 7 – 5 win in the last 4 minutes (including defending those two short corners) must be one of the greatest moments in Marist Hockey history – and it was just a fixture game. However, what is perhaps most telling is that after that seventh goal, they quickly celebrated and then set up again to defend. It was a huge credit to the team, to our Year 12s fresh from Retreat and to their coach, Jordan Cabot. In the end, it was a hat trick for Nick Keir and Matt Alvarez, and a great debut game for Damon Johnston (7), Sami Rance (7), Lincoln Stockwell (9), and Zander Holliday’s (12) in the goals. 

Furthermore, over the holidays, Nick Keir represented Queensland at the National U18 Titles in Hobart, receiving the silver medal to Tasmania. Matthew Alverez, Damon Johnston, and Sami Rance also played for the Brisbane teams at the U13 State Championships. Matthew’s Brisbane 1 team won the competition, with Matthew now selected for the Queensland team in the Australian U13 Carnival in September. 

This week, we play St Patrick’s College (the reigning premiers of the competition) at the State Hockey Centre. 

Student Achievements

Matthew Alvarez - Hockey

Matthew who is a member of the Marist Hockey Team was selected into one of the Hockey Queensland U13s State Teams that will be competing at the Australian National Championships in Newcastle, NSW from 23-29 September 2023.

Matthew played in the Brisbane 1 U13 team who finished first winning 7 of 7 games of the recent Queensland State Championships in Cairns, Qld. 

Marist Track and  Field

Mr Richard Graham – Director of Rugby Union / Track and Field

Mr Rob Martin – Head Coach, Track and Field

Track and Field Registration

 If you haven’t registered yet for the 2023 Track and Field program, please go to Student Café now. 

This is particularly important so you don’t miss any of the relevant information being sent to Track and Field squad members. 

Season Launch

It was fantastic to see the 80-plus students who turned up to the Track and Field “Team Muster” on the weekend.

In pursuit of the College’s 9th successive AIC Championship, Mr Rob Martin led the students through a well-organised afternoon of events. These included -  

1. A look at the season ahead
2. Stretching and functional strength
3. Squad training – all events
4. Team BBQ

The enthusiasm for the new season is a reflection of the quality of the program and the culture within the Marist Track and Field program.

Thanks to Mr Eric Brown and Mr Cameron Pfeffer for leading the stretching and functional strength components, and to all the staff who joined in to make it a great start to the season.

Internal Mini Meet

A reminder that this Friday is the first Internal Mini Meet for 2023.

ALL students are welcome!

The event will be held on Friday 21 July at McMahon Oval and Hayden Oval. The competition will start at 3:30pm and be concluded by 4:45pm. The schedule of events will include –

1. Track events – 100m / 400m / 800m / 1500m
2. Field events – Long jump / High jump
3. Throw events – Shot put / Javelin

Please see the Marist app for the event schedule and note the specific events for Primary and Secondary students. NOTE – Met North places are still available.

Track and Field Uniform

A reminder that the DRESS CODE for all T&F training sessions is as per the 2023 Track and Field Handbook. MCA sports shirts / Marist T&F singlet, Marist sports shorts, and white or blue socks. 

For competitive events including Internal Mini Meets, the DRESS CODE is as per the 2023 Track and Field Handbook. Marist T&F singlet, Marist sports shorts, and white or blue socks.

It is important we get this right now as we have a mini meet this Friday afternoon here at the College, and we will be competing in the AIC Championship AS A TEAM wearing this uniform.

Track and Field Handbook

Please see the Marist app for the 2023 Track and Field Handbook.

The Handbook includes the relevant Track and Field information for students and parents/guardians. If you have any further questions, please contact Mr Richard Graham.

Cross Country

Mr Mitch Reid – Cross Country Coordinator

Queensland Schools State Cross Country Championships

On Sunday and Monday, the College had eight students represent Met North at the Queensland School State Cross Country Championships.

The individual races students competed in tough conditions for a place in the Queensland team at the National Championships. All boys represented the College and region strongly. Zac Milligan was the highlight having a great race, finishing in 2nd place. Please see below for the final results:

11 Years

Nick Bray – 37th

14 Years

Harry Prole – 17th

Perry Croft – 29th

15 Years

Zac Milligan – 2nd

Will Banner – 17th

16 Years

Asher Parkin – 11th

17 Years

Rory O’Keeffe – 29th

Cooper Guise – 32nd

The teams’ event was held on Monday, with Met North 16 Years finishing in first place – Congratulations to Asher Parkin and 14 Years finishing in 3rd - Congratulations to Harry Prole and Perry Croft.

Tennis

Mr Andrew Ward - Director of Tennis

What’s on at the Tennis centre?

Welcome to all parents and students playing in this year’s AIC season.

We have a few announcements for all to hopefully put into their routines.

1. AIC sessions are never cancelled as we will be holding indoor sessions covering a wide range of activities and theory work to help keep growing tennis minds and get the best out of each player.
2. Huge emphasis on the correct uniform at all matches including socks, shorts, shirts and hat each week. If you do not have them please see the friendly staff at the uniform shop.
3. Training Marist gear needs to be worn to all training sessions.
4. Make sure you are 30 mins early before the start of play. 7:15am to start warmups.

Please if we all can get behind this and make it a part of student’s routines, then we will not only look more professional, but boys will also take pride in being part of the team and we will not need to continually remind students the importance of this.

Results from the Trial v St Edmund’s College 

We had a very strong start to the season with wins in every team except one.

Friday saw us host Years 5 and 6 teams from ATC with a clean sweep of both Years 5 and 6, A and B teams. This is pleasing to see with so many boys looking like our next generation of dominating players in our sport. Credit to all the boys who showed what the hard training in our squad programs are doing in regard to the high level of tennis being displayed.

Our teams from the Saturday games displayed great tenacity and were just to solid for Edmund’s players with wins in all teams except for one which lost in a tight 4-4 to lose by 3 games.

Even though this season we have lost many boys to other sports Marist tennis keeps producing players and we hope these boys will enjoy the ride to hopefully dislodge Peters from the top and also as we strive to win the first competition. Although an early season injury to our number 1 player Louis Morris we have handy replacement players waiting for their shot to represent the school at the highest honour.

Congratulations to our 1st IV team of Eddie Price, Henry Lambley, Hamish Davidson, and Fletcher Wessling.

Our boys won all eight matches convincingly and wowed the spectators with some very entertaining matches of high quality.

Finally, a reminder that there will be no coaching on the week of the Ekka break and public holiday. This week will be dedicated to the Marist singles championships which will run after school on the Monday and Tuesday afternoon straight after school. Marist singles Championships are on the 14th and 15th of August. Entries for this will open soon. Let's hope for a great season and please let us know if you can’t play early so we can find you a replacement

Sport Photo Upload

The College has established a Dropbox link dedicated to parents for submitting sports photos. Provided that the submitted photos meet the required quality standards, they have the potential to be featured on the College's social media pages and/or print publications. We sincerely appreciate your proactive participation in submitting any photos. Thank you in advance for your contributions.