Secondary Sport

Redlands Rhino – Weekly Fixtures

Please note: Redlands Rhino has the most up-to-date weekly fixtures. This is uploaded every Tuesday afternoon at 4.00pm. Please ensure you check this with regards to game times, venues and oppositions.

Weekly Results

Head of Secondary Sport

Generalise the Specialised: Youth sport is about experiencing sports and not a sport. 

We must be weary of students trying to specialise in a sport too early. People can be lulled into believing that the earlier young people specialise in a sport, and the more they train in one particular sport, the better they will become. Commonly referred to as the “10,000” hour rule, a theory made popular in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, meaning the sooner people achieve 10,000 hours of practice in an activity the sooner they have the chance of reaching expertise. This theory forces coaches, students and parents into thinking that more is better. This rule has been heavily criticised in sport. David Epstein, in his book The Sport Gene outlined that the research for the 10,000 rule was originally done on violin and piano players and is largely irrelevant for sport. Epstein instead highlights that the largest contributing factors of success of an athlete are their genes, coaches, facilities, opportunities and most importantly, luck. “It is in fact about 10,000 hours + or – 10,000 hours that is more accurate”, Epstein, 2013).

Often young people can be too quick to specialise in a sport. This can lead to higher rates of attrition, lack of interest in the sport or increase the chance of injury. A recent study by Loyola University Medical Center found that children below the ages of 15 who played in only one sport were 73%-90% more likely to be injured.

From an Australian perspective there are many examples of famous athletes who have seen professional sporting success via participating in multiple sports at a younger age, and only focussing on one later in their development.

  • James Magnusson was a Rugby player until his late teens when he began to focus on swimming
  • Sally Pearson was a former gymnast and swimmer before specialising later in athletics
  • Elysse Perry, still currently playing for the Australian Cricket team, also played professional Football. Prior to that she played Netball, Athletics and Basketball.
  • Sally Fitzgibbons won two Track Field gold medals at the 2007 Youth Olympic Festival but has now pursued a career in professional surfing
  • Kim Crowe, undoubtedly one of Australia’s most successful female rowers, was a 400m hurdler before injuring herself and during rehabilitation tried Rowing.

As coaches, administrators, parents or students, we should focus more on developing a strong, broad base of athletic ability including movements such as running, jumping, swimming, strength, flexibility, mobility and power. These athletic components can then be combined with a variety of specific skills including passing, striking and dodging in any game situation.

It is for this reason that the development of Sport at Redlands must be viewed as a whole and not as separate systems of sports.  Our students are encouraged to be a part of many sports and not just one.

References

Basketball

Girls Basketball

Round 4 saw some great games for our Girls B teams. Our Junior B Girls had a very convincing win against Chevalier, our Inter B girls had their first win against St Pauls, and our Open Bs had a 14 point win over Barker. After a few easy wins early in the season, the Junior A Girls had a closely contested game against Chevalier. With the game heading into overtime it was a tough game for the Redlands Girls, but they managed to pull away with a 2 point win. Our Inter A Girls travelled to the Central Coast for the second time this season, falling short to a very strong Central Coast Inter A team. The Junior C team also travelled to the Central Coast, losing to another strong CCGS team. The 1sts Girls showed some great signs throughout the game, but fell short to the top of the table Chevalier team.  

Boys Basketball

It was a tough round for our Boys A teams at home against Oakhill, but despite the final results, all of our teams showed that they can compete with the schools at the Div 1 level. The 14A Boys had a greatly contested game against Oakhill. With Redlands holding the lead for the majority of the game, Oakhill had a late surge and managed to tie the score at the final siren. With this game heading into overtime, we couldn’t stop Oakhill’s momentum and they ran away with a seven point lead at the final siren. Our B Boys teams travelled to Oakhill and played some great basketball to win the majority of these games: 13B, 14B, 15B and Open B Boys. The majority of our C and D boys teams also played against Oakhill and with some great teamwork there were great wins in the 17C, 15C, 15D, 14C and 14D games. Our Open C boys travelled to St Pat’s and despite a slow start, finished with a 16 point win.

Best of luck to all teams this Saturday, in what will be the second to last game before the Christmas holiday break.

Rowing

Our Redlands Rowing program attended the Independent Schools Championships at the Sydney International Regatta Centre last Sunday. This was our first time on the Sydney 2000 Olympic Rowing course for season 2018-2019.

The Yr 7 and Yr 8 students had the opportunity to race against their own Year Groups but also the opportunity to race against the Year Groups above them, giving each student roughly four races across the day. While this is a heavy race schedule, it means that we don’t need to attend a regatta each weekend, instead students gained 2-3 regattas worth of experience in one day. A number of students also had the chance to race in small boats.

From these Year Groups, a total of 11 medals were won with many students walking away with more than one medal. Performances like this really make our Juniors the stars of the program. There are just too many results here to mention, however a few outstanding performances are our Yr 7 Boys 2nd crew (James Ireland, Harley van der Pluijm, Finn Woodward, Sam Chubb and Fergus Edmonds-Wilson) who won gold in the SB Yr 8 4x+ C Final and silver in the SB Yr 9 4x+ C Final.

After a disrupted two week block of training leading into this regatta with both exams and school camps, our Seniors were a little under prepared compared to what they normally would have been. Starting out slowly, they built into their racing across the day, with the Girls 1st Crew (Amelie Archer, Kristen Walker, Maddi Howard, Zoe Kimber and Tash Richardson) taking out bronze in the SG 4x+ A Final while the Girls 2nd Crew (Hannah Tobin, Laura Sidoti, Steph Larcos, Emily Barrelle and Xavier Little) won Silver in the SG 4x+ B Final. Maddi Howard also finished with a strong bronze medal in the SG Yr 11 1x final.

The Senior Boys raced well but with a number out sick after the school camps, they were not able to produce the results that they were aiming for, however with both the 1st and 2nd crews making it through to the A Final, it proves that even with an undermanned squad, they are on the right track. Alex Holtheuer was outstanding in his SB Yr10 1x final winning a silver medal while the combination of Jack Walsh (Yr 8) and Alexander Verschoor (Yr 9) were nothing but impressive with their solid silver medal from the SB Yr 10 2x in their first outing together in a boat and Jack’s first race over the full 2000m distance, a combination to keep an eye on in future years.

Our students had earned an opportunity to mount the podium 17 times to receive a medal. Our Boys finished 8th overall and our Girls placed 4th. Combined together, we finished a close 2nd on the overall points table, only 19 points off Canberra Grammar School who has double the number of students in their rowing program compared to ours. This is also the second year running we have been less than 20 points off taking out the overall trophy at this regatta. All students should be very proud of their efforts in this event.

Looking ahead, students are encouraged to take the opportunity to sign up for the holiday training options and families are reminded to complete the approvals for their children for the January Rowing Camps.

Touch Football

For Round 4 of the ISA Competition, the majority of our Touch Football teams travelled to our home venue of Macquarie to take on teams from Barker and St Spyridon. Many of our girls had already faced a gruelling week at Yr 10 Camp, so it was great to see so many fresh faces ready to compete.

The morning started with our Redlands 1st VI again coming up against the undefeated Barker As, with both teams colliding in what proved to be a tight and physical contest between two of the strongest teams in the competition. Caitlin du Plooy was again a standout, making constant metres in attack, whilst her defence for her team was monumental, consistently holding out repeated attacks from the Barker athletes. In their next match, the Redlands 1st VI showed fantastic composure and fitness to outplay the Barker B side with Caroline Bates, Ruby Brook and Aoibheann MacLochlainn running amok in attack. It was wonderful to watch some of the attacking structures brought in by the coaching staff through the preseason demonstrated by our top team so effectively, the Redlands side running out clear winners with a 7-1 demolition.

Elsewhere our Senior B and C sides also came up against teams from Barker, with our Senior Cs putting a brilliant team performance on show as, with no subs and already having played the match before, they combined for a comprehensive win 4-0. This was a fantastic win for the team, one that can continue to build on through the season, and will move them quickly up the ladder on overall points.

Our Junior Cs also played a match against an incredibly quick and athletic side in St Spyridon. The opposition immediately got our girls on the backfoot, scoring two early tries but it was a credit to the Junior Cs as they fought hard to bring it back with Anna Ivanovic and Jazz Gregan combining to make considerable inroads against the Spyridon defence. This pressure was rewarded with a wonderful team try with all of the team having a hand in the try as the ball was moved from sideline to sideline. Unfortunately, the Juniors could not build further on this pressure and a late try sealed it for Spyridon resulting in a 3-1 loss for Redlands.

I continue to be so impressed with the upskilling and developing of all of our players each week, to see the improvement at all levels is not only a credit to the coaches but also, and more importantly, to the dedication and commitment of our students. For the girls who are attending each of the training sessions and following up all of that training into the matches, the rewards will be how far they improved as players at the end of this competition.

Mr Tom Kindred
Head of Secondary School Sport
sports@redlands.nsw.edu.au

All Sports contacts can be found on Redlands Pulse.​