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.

Head of Sport

Sport in School is About Developing Better People not Better Results

The world over we are seeing a decline in what can be deemed as “traditional” competitive sports. In Australia less kids are now competing in Swimming, Rugby and Cricket, sports which were once giants in the Australian sporting landscape. This phenomenon is not isolated to Australia as in New Zealand there are decreases in the number of children playing Rugby, in Canada a reduction in Ice Hockey participation and in the USA, evidence suggests a sharp decline in the number of children playing Baseball, their national pastime. So, what is causing this decline within competitive sports?

Firstly, the sports are not to blame. It is the shift in approach to coaching, mentoring and delivering these sports to students which has changed. In many cases today, we have begun to focus too much on youth sports as a talent and performance driven pathway, as opposed to a critical component of childhood and adolescence. Sport in schools is about character education, ensuring young people are exposed to environments and experiences that help them become better people and better students. The opportunity to develop resilience, perseverance and commitment are life skills which stand as the most important aspect of youth sport, not the wins or losses of a team. Sport in schools, at the most basic level, is about education and learning above all else.

The pressure from sports organisations and professional sporting bodies to continue to look for and develop “talent” has pervaded our school’s sports system. In many cases, sports programs are directed towards a pathway of physical development and skill in a pursuit of winning records. This has in turn led to a focus on what is easily measurable when trying to identify talent: solely results and physical attributes. I am not saying there is anything wrong with skill development; in fact, if we were not developing physical skills, we would not be doing our students justice. What I am proposing is for skills development to move beyond physical attributes of a sport and towards the “softer” more personable skills required for success in the future. How well does a student deal with loss; how do they show humility in victory? How committed are students to a cause greater than themselves? How respectful are they towards their teammates, opposition and the ‘privilege’ of playing sport?

In order to achieve these standards we require a combination of three parties working together – parents, students and coaches. Parents are asked to gently encourage and provide positive reinforcement regardless of result. Students learn to understand responsibility and commitment and coaches use every opportunity within their respective sports as positive learning experiences, whilst at the same time motivating students to stay engaged with sport through their lifespan.

These are not easy tasks. As a school we are accutely aware of this and are looking at ways to move forward in the best possible way.

Athletics

Athletics training will begin on Friday 1 June from 3.30-5.00pm at Balmoral Oval in partnership with the Mosman Athletics Club. If you are interested in participating in these trainings please see Mr Ellis in the Sports Office to register your interest. More information can be found on Redlands Pulse.

Cross Country

We had a great day yesterday out at the ISA Cross Country. Congratulations to Olivia Vigneault (Yr 8) who was the U14 Girls Champion, Emma Mahon (Yr 9) who was the U15 Girls Champion, Olivia Donoghue (Yr 9) who finished 3^rd in the U15 Girls, and Hannah Johns (Yr 12) who finished 3^rd in the 18+ Girls. These are some fantastic results for our female athletes.

We also walked away with the Junior Girls Divisional Championship (for the second year running) and for the first time in ISA Cross Country history, we took the Senior Boys Divisional Championship.

We will have a full recap of the day in next week’s Note Day.

Football

Congratulations to Kate Stanbridge, Sydney Stuckman, Joh Sawa and Daniel Knight for their selection into the ISA teams who competed in the NSWCIS championships on Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 May. Well done to Kate Stanbridge who was selected into the NSWCIS squad. 

Hockey

Last weekend saw some tight games of Hockey played by our 1sts and 3rds while the 2nds girls took advantage of a bye round. The 3rds travelled to Blue Mountains Grammar School for their game where the 0-3 loss score line didn’t reflect the effort by the girls. Special mentions should go to Lucy Horton, Jazmin Evans and Jessica Travers-Wolf for their individual outstanding games.

The 1sts played against St Andrews Cathedral School and in a game where SACS were constantly on the offensive, the Redlands girls won the day with a 1-0 win. Yasmin Gupta took advantage of a break to take on the SACS goalkeeper and sneak in the match winner. While the whole team performed remarkably well under pressure in defence, special mention goes to Anna McCormack for her key role in keeping SACS away from the goals.

This weekend will see our 1sts travel to Oxley College for a 9.00am game (please complete online permission for transport) while the 2nds play at 9.45am and the 3rds have a 8.30am game against St Andrews Cathedral School at Ernie Smith Reserve in Moorebank. As always, we ask that students arrive no later than 45 min prior to their game times to ensure that they can adequately prepare for their respective matches.

Netball

Some very close matches over the weekend with a number of Redlands teams coming out victorious. Our Senior 2nds had a great match against Central Coast Grammar School, which has certainly boosted their confidence as they come up against Oakhill this weekend. Our ISA Junior A and B teams both had away wins against both Chevalier and Oxley respectively. Both teams are looking to continue their form with some home games against Central Coast this weekend.

Seeking Expressions of Interest 

On Saturday 4 August we would like to take interested players from the Secondary School Netball program (Yrs 7-12) to attend the Giants vs Fever game at the ICC, Darling Harbour with the game starting at 7pm. All players are welcome to attend this game. The cost will be charged to your School account. Tickets are approximately $30 per person. All players are to make their own way to and from the venue. If your daughter(s) would like to attend this excursion, please register your daughter for this event by contacting the Director of Netball Coaching, Annie Stalley, via email astalley@redlands.nsw.edu.au by 13 July.

A reminder about our open Netball skills sessions on Thursday mornings have been moved to Lang Gym (7.00–8.00am). These are open to all Secondary School Netball players and are a great way to get some extra skills sessions in.

Rugby

The Redlands 16s had a resounding win over the weekend with some brilliant running from the backs matched with incredible efforts defensively from the forwards, proving too much for the weaker SACS side. This squad is made up through a combination of our 15s and our current 16s and it was great to see the combinations between the two Year Groups be so strong through the entire match. James Wells set up James Reid for a try along with Guy Salter, Ben Bootes and Alex Phipps caused mayhem across the whole field. There were a few notable highlights from the game. Gus Miller soaring above the SACS winger for a try stands out as one, along with an absolutely perfect line break run from Simon Van Weelde. I do want to highlight the incredible game of Alex Phipps who tackled anything in sight and his ball running for the entire game was devastatingly good. Well done to the 16s and let’s see if they can follow it up this weekend against Redfield.

Tennis

Another strong performance from Redlands ISA Tennis with all four teams recording a win (back to back weekends). Our 1sts team had a very close victory over St Pius (4.5-3.5) at Talus St. The 2nds continued to display some fantastic tennis and were able to comfortably beat their St Pius opposition (7-1). The 3rds had another dominant victory over St Pius winning (6-2). The 4ths produced another good solid win at Cammeray against St Pius (6-2). Well done to all players. Please make sure you check the coming weekend’s fixtures.

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

All Sports contacts can be found on Redlands Pulse.