Sport

Sports Pathway Program

The Sports Pathway Program started during step up in November 2017. The Program is made up of two year 9 classes and one year 10 class.

The program is designed to give our sports-minded students an opportunity to extend themselves in that area, develop their strength and conditioning and be introduced to VCE PE and VCAL Sport and Recreation theory units.

Throughout term 1 the students have been involved in some fantastic excursions and training programs. These include strength and conditioning sessions with Collingwood AFLW coach Luke Kitchen, Global performance testing, Aquapark excursion and Oliver’s Hill and Frankston beach excursion.

We have some big things planned for term 2, including possible excursions to Melbourne Storm Rugby Club and Collingwood Football Club as well as a seminar on sports nutrition.

Swimming Sports

CESC swimming sports took place on Thursday the 1st of March. Melbourne weather turned on a glorious 26 degree day and everyone was in good spirits for a great day at Noble Park Aquatic Centre.

With over 900 students attending it was the biggest swimming sports to date. There were plenty of activities for students to participate in and it was fantastic to see all students thoroughly enjoying the day. There was swimming races, novelty swimming races, a waterslide, basketball, cricket, soccer, volleyball and a BBQ.

The competition between the 5 houses was very tightly contested, with Gilmore winning by 16 points over Chisholm in second place and Deakin was close behind in third place.

Well done to all students on your high level of participation in a variety of activities and making it such an awesome day. We are looking forward to athletics day in term 3 already!

Dan Kelly, USA

Hi my name is Dan Kelly and I am currently in year 12. I had the opportunity back in 2016 to head on student exchange in America which lasted 11 months. My time over there was an unforgettable experience that I am grateful for and I enjoyed all the new and exciting things that I got to see and do. I went to a tiny school in Oregon’s east in the town of Ione which had roughly 150 students. The town was mainly farmers for cattle, corn and wheat, which the place I got to stay at was a huge wheat farm.

One of the major highlights of my trip was being able to participate in Basketball, Track and Football. The first of the sports was football which I played running back, offensive and defensive lineman, tight-end and punter. I was able to get a lot of game time which was great but the season wasn’t what we wanted as we left the season with only 2 wins. There were a lot of close games too where we nearly caught up but unfortunately we didn’t quite cross the line. I managed to get a couple of touchdowns as running back too and a spot in the paper where I managed to get the inescapable nickname ‘Bushranger’. Turns out the story of Ned Kelly has travelled to the states where they refer him to the “Australian Billy the kid”. All up I had plenty of fun at all the games we played and memories that I’ll never forget.

The second sport season was basketball. I was playing in the junior varsity team and managed to get six varsity games by the end of the season. Our team was fairly short with only three tall players that we relied on heavily. We had quite a few wins but we unfortunately missed out on play-offs by the seasons end. I played the role of ‘1’ where I would follow the ball in the defence structure and try get the breakaway or turnover and put up a lay-up. I loved this role as I was reasonably good at it and managed to rack up a lot of turnovers with the signature “kangaroo hop lay up” as the Americans called it. Some of the teams we played were huge where we had no hope in the varsity games (top level). This team we played called Sherman had an average height of 6ft3 I reckon and all they would do was dunk left right and centre. This tall kid Treve Martin did a massive dunk on one of our tall players Tyson and for the rest of the season it was the running joke that he got put on a poster, real bad. It was a great experience to play with and against all those guys during my stay and I still manage to keep up with a lot of them which is great.

The last season was track which was more individual but the track team all hung out and encouraged each other every step of the way which was awesome. I did well against the other schools but they all are full on and train 3 times a day which is dedication to the next level. I was fast enough to get into the final heat for the 100m sprint but I swear those other dudes have rockets on their feet because they flew by crazy speeds that I couldn’t keep up.

My trip to America was full on and an amazing experience where the sports were only a small chunk of what I got to do but the sports was definitely a major highlight that I will cherish forever. From the everyday practices afterschool from 3-6 to the arrival back home in the classic yellow bus from games at 2am in the morning, I loved it all and would do it all again.

Thanks for reading!

-Dan