Sport & Co-Curricular

Come & Try Rowing

With the 2023/2024 Rowing Season almost upon us, we are very excited to allow the opportunity for students to attend a Come & Try Rowing Day in Weeks 5 and 6 of Term 3 (Sunday 27 August, 11am - 1pm and Sunday 3 August, 11am - 1pm).

During the summer season, more than 1300 athletes from various schools in the state train hard to achieve success at the Head of the River, one of the most important and elite school rowing sporting races.

Our athletes at Loreto College prepare by attending scheduled workouts in the gym each week as well as refining their technique on the waters at West Lakes. The girls also attend two training camps each season to further enhance their skills and promote team bonding and compete in local and interstate regattas. Our Loreto Rowers join the Rowing Squad each season with one goal in mind – training for success whilst having fun!

Throughout the 2022/2023 Season, our girls achieved amazing results with many of our athletes selected to be a part of the State Team, SASI and awarded best Senior Athlete of the State at the Rowing SA Awards.

We are extremely excited to announce our coaching team for the 2023/2024 season, led by our Head of Rowing, Mr Dario Sportelli, and Senior Rowing Coach, Mr Leonardo Calabrese, both who come to Loreto from Italy with many years of knowledge both as athletes and coaches at national and international levels. Both Dario and Leo are ready to support our girls in their development with a smile and positive attitude. If your daughter is interested in attending a Rowing Come & Try Day, please click on the link below to register their interest. Students are more than welcome to join both sessions across the two weekends. It is important we know how many students will be attending so we can allocate the correct number of coaches. A detailed program will be sent to interested families on Wednesday 23 August.

Rowing Come & Try Day – Register Interest

Please contact Dario Sportelli at Dario.sportelli@loreto.sa.edu.au or Leader of Sport and Sport Performance, Ms Sophie Hage, at Sophie.hage@loreto.sa.edu.au for more information before Sunday 20 August, 6pm.

We hope to see many girls out on West Lakes, with all athletes across Years 7-11 welcome, whether they are beginners or advanced in the sport. The more the merrier!

Senior Co-Curricular Sports

Term 3 Information:

We have our final round of sport this Saturday 19 August with many teams playing off for top position. We would like to wish all our teams the best of luck for their final games.  We would also like to congratulate the following teams for finishing in the top two and playing for a premiership this weekend:

• Netball Year 11/12 Loreto 1
• Netball Year 11/12 Loreto 5
• Netball Year 11/12 Loreto 6
• Netball Year 10 Loreto 2
• Netball Year 10 Loreto 3
• Netball Year 9 Loreto 4
• Netball Year 8 Loreto 1
• Netball Year 7 Loreto 1
• Badminton Senior 2

GRAND FINAL FIXTURES

Term 4 Information: 

Thank you for completing the Term 4 Sports Nomination Form for Years 7-11.  Based on the nominations received, we will commence putting students into teams and assigning coaches. 

Please click on the link below to check the nominations received.  If your daughter’s name is not listed and she would like to participate in a Term 4 sport, could you please let me know no later than Monday 21st August.

2023 Term 4 Sport Nominations Received Years 7-11

Intercol Competition 

Loreto is excited to introduce an annual intercollegiate competition commencing this year between Mary Mackillop College and Loreto College. This year our three knockout netball teams will be competing against Mary Mackillop on Wednesday 23 August 4:00pm – 6:30pm. We are hoping this will be fun sporting event for our students that will strengthen the shared community between our two catholic girl’s schools. 

The Loreto Café will be open and will have the following food available:

• pastries, pizzas, hot chips and sweets such as muffins and cookies.  

The café is cashless so families will need to pay by card.

We cannot wait to see the Loreto community come together in support of our teams, showcasing the Loreto spirit.

Knockout Competition 

Our Knockout teams continue to compete in the Statewide Competition representing Loreto well. Some of the results are included below:

Years 7 - 9 Football – Monday 21 August 

Congratulations to our Year 7-9 knockout football girls for winning their first round of the knockout football.  The team defeated Charles Campbell 6.10.46 – 3.4.22.  We wish the team all the best for their next game on Monday 21st August. 

Years 9 - 10 Netball – Tuesday 29 August 

A big congratulations to our Year 9/10 netball team who won both second round games to advance to the School Sport SA State Finals.

• Loreto (54) defeated Banksia High (18)
• Loreto (50) Defeated Mt Carmel (10)

This event is held on Tuesday 29 August at Netball SA Stadium. We wish the team all the best for this competition.

Aerobics:

Congratulations to our senior aerobics teams who competed in the Blitz It Aerobics Challenge on Saturday 5 August.

• LC Amplify – 2nd Place
• LC Snap  - 1st Place
• LC Electric – 4th Place

The teams are now preparing for their next competition which is the FISAF National Aerobics Championships held in the Gold Coast. 

Student Achievements:

Congratulations to Luci Bell (Year 9) on being selected in the North Adelaide Football Development Squad.  We wish her all the best for the upcoming training sessions and games.

We also congratulate Deontae Greenoff (Year 12) who has been selected in the U18s Budgies Australian Indigenous Schoolgirls Netball Team and will play at the upcoming International Netball festival in Fiji.

If you have any questions about co-curricular sport, please contact me on Sophie.Hage@loreto.sa.edu.au

Ms Sophie Hage

Leader of Sport and Sport Performance

Junior Sports News

What a brilliant time this is for women’s sport! The Matildas knocked off the AFL and NRL grand finals as the highest rated event on Australian television. Loreto’s schoolyard is full of girls kicking soccer balls around at lunchtime.

“If I see it, I can be it.”

Take The Shot

I am sure many of you watched the Matildas’ tense quarter final win over France on Saturday night. How much pressure was on Cortnee Vine when she stepped up to take her penalty? Her team’s entire fate resting on her shoulders! Millions of people around Australia and the world watching! All her teammates relying on her! To put Australia into the semi final for the first time ever! She stepped up, didn’t allow the occasion to overcome her and delivered.

On Saturday our Sub Junior 4 netball team were tied 10-10 with time running out against Walkerville. With tensions high, Milla Smith stepped up with a clutch goal. Winners by one! 

On Friday our Year 4 soccer team were 0-1 down late in the final stages against Pulteney. April Waudby suddenly worked her way through the crowded defence and buried her shot in the bottom corner to tie the game. Jubilant scenes – just like the Matildas!

April and the Year 4 soccer team; Milla still smiling on Monday after her winning goal

It was great to see two Loreto girls have their own “Cortnee Vine” moments.

Watching one of our other soccer teams on Friday, they played an excellent game. Worked hard, ran to space, won plenty of the ball. When near the goals though we unselfishly passed the ball around… and around and around. Our players seemed a little reluctant to take the shot themselves. Maybe not wanting to appear selfish…?  That slight hesitation cost us time and the defenders closed down our space. Those goal-scoring-opportunity moments passed. We ended up losing 1-2. It was an exciting, tense game and we played well but I wonder what would have happened if…?

Sometimes the “team thing” is to take the responsibility yourself and take the shot, rather than leave it up to your team mates to finish off. Part of playing sport in junior school is exploring these areas - when to be unselfish and to pass the ball around… and when to back yourself and take responsibility.

Back to Milla and April - on another day they might have missed those shots. But what is great is that at the crunch time of the match they were willing to back themselves.

When the game is on the line, what we want to see is Loreto players stepping up and having a go. Who is prepared to take the shot? Who will accept the responsibility? Who is brave enough to put their hand up? Who is prepared to risk missing? It might be tempting to pass it off, shrink back and let someone else do it. Some days the shot will go in, some days it will miss but by stepping up and having a go, you are giving your team a chance to win.

Aerobics Blitz It Competition

Well done to all the girls who competed at the Blitz It Competition last weekend. Our teams performed superbly:

1st Illusion

2nd Dynamite

1st Thunder

3rd Diamonds

I was so impressed with how the teams and coaches handled the fun, exciting, stressful and cramped environment. There are a million things going on at once at these events and people everywhere, but our girls stayed focused on their task and supported each other throughout. They behaved like professionals and their performances were reflective of this.

The only major drama occurred early in the Thunder’s routine when there was a glitch with their music.

For an activity that is built around perfect coordination and precision timing aligned with music that they have been rehearsing for months, this could have been a disaster. Would they be allowed to start over…? Uncertainty hung in the air for perhaps the longest 3 seconds any of us had ever experienced! As the audience, coaches and I held our collective breaths, the girls soldiered on. They stayed in time. They powered through their routine. They didn’t let it affect them.

There’s a saying that in sport, that when you are placed under pressure your performance reverts back to the standard of your training. Despite being thrown a massive curve ball early in their routine, they didn’t let it impact their performance. They’d honed their routine and knew it like the back of their hand. Some teams would have dropped their bundle at the first sign of trouble but our girls can be proud that they showed such strong resilience.

If this was a test – they passed with flying colours!

Cross Country

A team of cross country runners from Years 3-6 attended the Catholic Schools Cross Country Event held in the east parklands last week.

It is one of the biggest events on our sporting calendar with 60 schools and over 2500 runners competing. For many of the Loreto girls this was their first time competing in a race of this kind and they handled themselves well. Everyone made it around the challenging course and we had a number of impressive placings.

Loreto achieved some excellent team and individual results:

• Zali Karp, Savy Yeates and Grace-Marie Hadgis won the Year 4 Division B team event
• Grace Cornish won the Year 6 Division B race
• Marnie Sherwell came third in the Year 6 Division A race
• Marnie Sherwell, Maddison Graves, Beatrice Mezzini and Alexandra Holland won the Year 6 Division A team event (amazingly these girls finished 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th in this race out of more than 120 competitors)

Our girls were also outstanding with their behaviour and maturity. They stuck together in groups, were always encouraging teammates, cheering girls on at the finish line and helping other students with their warm ups. The girls represented the school brilliantly and should be proud of their efforts.

Many thanks to Ms Scott for organising the runners at the start line and to Danielle, Sharon, Maryanne and Sally for helping with supervision and organisation throughout the day.

Year 3 Soccer

Well done to our Year 3 soccer team who finished up their season with a fun game under lights at Campbelltown. It was a great experience and we got to play on a brand new synthetic pitch for something different.

The girls had an excellent winter, often (always…) taking on teams who were quite a bit older than them. The girls never gave up and have all improved. A huge thank you to Matt and John for coaching.

It surprised me a bit how little Year 2/3 girls soccer is available in schools. Our Year 3s really only had the option of playing against older girls or against boys’ teams.

Interestingly, quite a few schools have now heard that we have a Year 3 girls team and would love to be part of a new competition with us next year. These schools had also found that there was nowhere for their younger girls to play. So, thanks to our little “pioneers” this winter, a new competition will get underway in 2024. Younger students at Loreto will now have an age-appropriate girls competition to play in. So to Eva, Amelia O, Amelia L, Imogen, Josie and Maya – this is your legacy!

Student Achievements

Millicent Lyons and Poppy Teague competed in the School Aerobics National Final last week for their club, Activ8. The girls won the state title (competing against secondary school teams!) and finished fourth in the national final against teams from all around Australia. Only 0.4 points separated 1st place from 4th place. Congratulations Millicent and Poppy! A terrific effort, especially competing against girls 5+ years older.

Well done also to Imogen Fluder who had a great Contax netball trial on Sunday. There is another trial in a couple of weeks before they finalise their summer teams. Trying out for teams can be quite nerve-wracking so great to see you having a go!

If your daughter is involved in a sport or activity outside of Loreto that you would like to share, please let me know at ben.johnswood@loreto.sa.edu.au.

SAPSASA Soccer

Good luck to Sofia Spagnoletti, Beatrice Mezzini and Alexandra Holland who will be representing East Adelaide SAPSASA District at the state championships next week.

Term 4 Sport

The nomination form is now open on Loreto Connect for summer sport selections. There are a number of team sports to choose from:

• Netball for Years 2-6
• AFLW for Years 3-6
• Basketball for Year 3-6
• Volleyball for Years 3-6
• Tennis matches for Years 3-6
• Cricket for Years 2-4

Refereeing

I made my debut as a soccer referee at one of our matches on Friday. I asked the girls for some feedback on how I went:

Hmmm… okay I guess.

Not exactly glowing praise but a pass nevertheless. I’ll take it!

Mr Ben Johnswood

Sport Coordinator