Sport News

Welcome back to another term of sport at Marist. With rugby, football, chess and cross country on offer this term, it is sure to be a busy one. One of the reasons, some might say the main reason, we play sport in schools is to teach boys life skills. It looks again like Term 2 is going to provide an opportunity for boys to further develop their resilience and understanding as COVID-19 will no doubt continue to impact us with coaches and students falling ill or being close contacts and having to isolate. I thank everyone for their patience and understanding in this matter. Already we are somewhat behind in trialling and training in our sports and will be playing catch up in the next couple of weeks. Speaking with colleagues in our brother AIC schools, we are all in a similar position.

I thought the start of the new season was an opportune time to share my personal KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for sport. These values are, for me, the importance of why schools play sport. While winning is important for boys, it is certainly not the primary reason we 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. 

Football

Mr Derek Lennon (Football Coordinator)

We are hitting the ground running with trials this weekend against Villanova College. The draw will be available on the College App soon. Trials for teams will continue this week and into next week and will include the Villanova matches as a part of the trial process. We aim to have teams fully sorted by Round 1, but this is very challenging with boys being absent from trials. The College App will be the key place to access all information about the season, with training schedule, staff contact details and match details posted as they become available.

A reminder that boys must be in the correct Marist playing apparel and boots and shin pads to take part in matches. 

Rugby Union

Mr Mitch Reid and Mr Corey Lucas (Rugby Coordinators)

Training for all rugby teams starts on Wednesday. While some teams and year levels are close to being sorted, boys should know that selections are ongoing, and training and playing well will see boys gain opportunities in higher teams.

Mr Bryan Rademeyer has resigned his position at the College. This includes his role as Rugby Coordinator. The College has appointed Mr Mitch Reid and Mr Corey Lucas from the Sports Department to ensure continuity for the program as we head into fixtures.

We are fortunate that our sport model has Year coordinators for each year level so the normal process will still apply, and for most people, the changeover will be seamless. If boys or parents need support on an issue that the Year Coordinator cannot help please contact either sports@marash.qld.edu.au or Head of Sport Derek Lennon at lennond@marash.qld.edu.au and we will assist.

A reminder that all boys must be in the correct Marist apparel to participate in matches. 

Track and Field

Mr Derek Lennon (Track and Field Coordinator)

After reporting on the first part of the Australian Track and Field Championships in the previous newsletter, it was great to see more success for Marist College Ashgrove athletes at the National Championships in the second half of the meet. Thank you again to Mr Robin Martin for his support of the boys involved.

Results – Part II (From Nationals: Tuesday 29 March to Sunday 3 April). Some more good success and a pair of medals.

Medals:

• Joel Drew - 400m hurdles (Bronze Medal) – Sticking to his race plan Joel ran an incredible race in arguably one of the most taxing sprinters events from outside in Lane 9. Amongst five hurdlers with a chance to medal going into the straight, Joel ran past two athletes and just missed silver by 0.01s. An excellent effort and PB
• Lee Martin – Shot Put (Bronze Medal) – Lee performed above his weight winning bronze in the National U17 shot put event. Going into the last round Lee was in 3rd by 1cm and held his nerve to keep his bronze medal position just behind the Australian record holder in the event. As well as bronze in shot, Lee managed a 7th place in the javelin in a competitive throwers age group. Well done.

 Additional Performances:

• Xavier Simms – 400m (PB, overall 17th), 200m (24th), 100m (22nd) – In the very competitive sprint events Xavier did a great job to run in the 100/200/400m treble after missing several weeks absent in the lead up in due to injury. Some solid times including a PB.
• James Prole - 800m. (14th) An excellent effort running the 800m in a close field and a very fast time matching his states efforts that will have James looking to be ready for Cross Country and track season later this year.
• Elliot Aldridge – Discus (10th) backing up from the 400m, Elliot placed 10th in Discus just outside the top eight making it through for extra throws in the final. A good effort competing in two different events at National level. Elliot close to breaking into National finals.

Old Boys Mac Leavy (2020) and Ham Burns(2020) also competed well, with Mac Leavy missing out on the National Open semi-finals 100m by 1 spot in 26th in a super fast time of 10.62s. `Mac (200m, 41st) and Hamiltyn (52nd) also competed solidly in the large Open 200m prelims in their first year in Opens competition. Well done.

Some solid results and great to see athletes getting good performances with AIC and Schools meets ahead later in the year.

Tennis

Mr Andrew Ward (Tennis Coordinator/Head Coach)

What’s on at tennis this week?

I hope everybody has had a wonderful Easter break and are refreshed and ready to go this term. All lessons have started today for all students booked in for Term 2 lessons.  

We kick off this week with our second tryout day for Open AIC tennis players on Wednesday 20 April 3:30pm-5:30pm. We will be offering 10 positions who will train for free over the first eigth weeks of this term. Stage 2 will begin in Weeks 9 and 10 of Term 2.

Welcome, To our newest member of the coaching team Mr Raj Khawas. Raj has come to us from India, where he played and learned his coaching trade. His passion for helping students and wanting them to reach their full potential will make him a great addition to myself and Callum in delivering high-quality coaching. I hope we all show him a warm welcome as he settles into his coaching role here at Marist.

A reminder that AIC tryouts for Years 5 – 10 will commence in Week 6 of Term 2.

Student Achievements

Three Year 8 boys representing the Brisbane Metro region won the U13 (aka Intermediate League) QLD State Championship in baseball during the holidays. Leo McKenna (Gilroy), Sam Robertson (Ephrem) and Lachlan Pawsey (Ignatius) were selected to represent Brisbane and defeated Gold Coast to take out the state titles. This qualified them to represent QLD at the 2022 Australian U13 Baseball Championship to be held in Victoria in May. The winning National team will qualify to represent Australia at the U13 Baseball World Series in California.

Sport Canteen

Welcome to the biggest term of sports canteen for 2022. Across Term 2, we generally need more than 60 people behind the counter every weekend to keep all the hungry people fed. 

Help is needed for all weeks, but especially at the Grandstand for the major fixture dates - 30 April, 14 May, 21 May, and 4 June.

Please put your name in the SignUp against any of the Term 2 dates that you can help with, starting from this weekend (23 April). All we need to make this work is one hour from every parent who has a son playing sport this term.

Grandstand Canteen:https://signup.com/go/PzbXSyg

Flats Canteen: https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?activitykey=1007000220133876071#choose_event_page

It is planned to also have a separate BBQ in operation for two of the busier weeks. A separate SignUp link will be provided soon to volunteer for this.