Another Famous Sporting Memory

Last term we focused on a number of famous sporting memories that we have had at our school over the last couple of years.

We’ve looked at the amazing performance of our teams at the Biathlon and Triathlon in 2019; we went back and re-lived the excitement of the CSSA Oz Tag teams winning State; we’ve also reminisced about how well our Primary and Secondary students have performed this year in Sport.

Our school is well-known for their strong performances in many sports, from netball to soccer, to swimming and athletics, and numerous other sports.

One sport that our school has grown in so much over the last decade has been basketball. Under the expert coaching of our teachers as well as experienced parents who coach at certain levels, our Primary and Secondary teams have performed very well in local and State competitions.

Look back to Term 2 this year, where our sensational girls basketball teams competed so well at the Zone competition. The U15’s performed very well and only just missed out on Semis, while the Open Girls went through the competition undefeated. Unfortunately, they were unable to progress to State due to the cancellation of the competition. Our Primary teams and Secondary Boys were also unable to demonstrate their skill in a competition.

In keeping with our famous memory theme, today we are going to travel back in time to last year and look at the performance of our Senior Primary Boys and Girls at the CSSA State Basketball Championships ...

The girls team only narrowly went down in the Final in the previous year in extra time and were looking for redemption. The boys were keen to test their skills against many talented players at this level.

Our boys started strongly, playing Northcross in their first game, and with good teamwork and accurate shooting, raced to an early lead and eventually won 20-12.

Their second match was against Northern Beaches, but they went down 23-6. The Shire would be their final opponent and our boys wanted to finish strong. Once we took the lead, we kept piling on more points and won comfortably in the end, taking the game 26-10. Though we won 2 out of 3 matches, we unfortunately did not progress to the Semi Finals. We did however, make it to the Playoff match for those teams that finished 2^nd in their pool. With 20 seconds on the clock, we were down by 1 point. With quick passing and determination, Charlie pushed through the line and had a shot and ... got it in! We were now in front 14-13 and held on to the final buzzer.

On the girls side of the competition, our girls were very keen to make it to the Semi Finals. They had some challenging teams in their pool so they needed to 'bring it' from the opening whistle.

Their first game was the start they wanted, again proving to the other teams how incredibly talented the team is, beating Northcross easily 38-2. Northern Beaches, was their second opponent, couldn’t keep up with the speed, agility and skills of our girls as they cruised to another hard fought victory 18-2. Their final pool match was close in the first half against the Shire, with the scores locked at 4-4, until Green Point put the pedal down and took hold of the match, winning 24-6. Their Semi Final was also a whitewash, winning easily with a 24-0 scoreline.

The Final would be against Maitland. We took an early lead through teamwork and increased this lead with continued focus and drive. After being 6 points up, the girls knew that there was still a lot of time left in the game, so their zone defence had to be perfect ... and it was!

The second half was just as intense as the first, and with the scores still close, it was going to be up to the team who wanted it more.

Our girls definitely stepped it up in the second half and gave everything they had. Mr Vartan, their coach, who had expertly devised a plan for the girls, had executed it perfectly and now, want to finish it off. They were exhausted from their efforts by the final whistle but in the end, it was worth it as our girls won 12-4. That’s right, they had just won the CSSA State Basketball Championships! They were the Champions!