From the Principal
It was a wonderful end to the ISA Winter Sports season last Saturday with Finals successes in Girls Football and Hockey to add to the Tennis successes from the previous weekend. Our Girls 1sts Football won the Division 1 Final and our 2nd and 3rd Hockey teams were also crowned ISA Champions.
I attended all three Girls Football Finals and in each game our teams were pitted against Barker College. Our Inter A team, composed of players from Years 7-10 had to contend with a Barker team of all Year 10 girls. Our girls fought hard and made Barker work for their victory. Our 2nd team had a close result with a single goal the difference.
The Girls 1sts game was a thrilling game to watch. Redlands has contested this Final several times previously, but has never won. The cracking pace at which the game began continued to full time and the skills of the players on both sides was of a standard that I have not watched before. Barker had not lost a game this season.
At full time the two sides remained 0-0, so it was to be extra time with five minutes in each direction. Sucking in the oxygen, the game continued with shots on goal from each side. Ten minutes later, still 0-0! It was the closest and best standard of Girls 1sts Finals that I have had the pleasure of watching.
Now it was down to a penalty shoot-out. Nerves on edge both on and off the field. It was great to have a good crowd of supporters, staff, parents and fellow-students from both schools supporting on the sideline.
The evenness continued, with shots hitting the netting, being saved by two excellent goal-keepers and only one each off target. The sixth round arrived. The Barker shot was saved and then ours hit the back of the net. For the first time Redlands had its name on a Shield that has been won by Barker from 2009-2016 (when the Shield’s history began), until Oakhill in the past two years. We were all so proud of our girls for their self-belief, courage and effort.
The overall standard among our A teams this year (Junior As, Inter As and Firsts) has also led to the overall Shield for Girls Football returning to Redlands for the second time, with the previous time being in 2009. That shield has been dominated since then by Central Coast Grammar with only Chevalier winning it twice. With many of the team still at school next year and a Year 7 goalkeeper, we should have a bright future.
Last week our Snowsports team of 83 competed in the NSW Interschools at Perisher. In total the team achieved 28 podium places – 16 team and 12 individual – with 7 Gold, 8 Silver and 13 Bronze medals. Congratulations to all competitors and especially to the NSW Champions:
Team Gold
Div 2 Boys Snowboard
Div 3 Girls Moguls
Individual Gold
George Murphy – Div 2 Boys Moguls
Daisy Thomas – Div 3 Girls Moguls, Div 3 Girls Slopestyle Ski
Sienna Wessels – Div 3 Girls Snowboard
Avie Keller – Div 5 Girls Moguls
I make special mention of Sienna Wessels (Yr 8) who won 7 medals – 4 individual and 3 team – representing the School in the Alpine, Skier Cross, Moguls, Snowboard and Snowboard Cross categories.
As a result of their State achievements, 40 members of the Snowsports team will now go on to represent the School at the National Interschools next week at Mt Buller. We wish them all the best.
I sincerely thank all of the coaches, parents and Sports Administrators, who have supported the students in this Winter season.
This week we have a fine exhibition of Visual Art on display in Redlands Hall which illustrates the creative and technical skills of our Junior and Secondary students in their curriculum and cocurricular Visual Art classes. Also on display are the works by our HSC students whose works will now be stored until marking time comes around. There will also be a display of the Year 12 IB Visual Arts work later this term. Thank you to all our Visual Art teachers who provide a very stimulating program for our students and work hard to set up these two annual exhibitions.
Dr Peter Lennox
Photo caption: Girls 1sts Football moments after their historic ISA Grand Final win