Public Speaking/Chess

Public Speaking Competition

De La Victors!

In October, the annual Lasallian Speaking Competition between St Bede’s, St James and De La Salle College was held at St Bede’s College, Mentone. This was the eighth contest between the schools and over the years a healthy rivalry has developed, which has ensured the highest standards of public speaking in this prestigious competition. This year De La Salle was ably represented by Costa Haritos (Year 7), who won his division and Christian Di Donato (Year 8), who not only won the Year 8 competition, but secured the Best Speaker award, securing the overall trophy for De La Salle College. Andre Lew (Year 9) proved to be an engaging, witty and entertaining speaker. Andrew Rappos (Year 10), made effective use of his acting skills to hold his audience enthralled. In Year 11, Joshua Attard demonstrated his ability to think on his feet when he delivered the best impromptu speech of the evening. This secured him victory in the senior division. Jacob Gooden, (Year 12), provided the audience with great entertainment in both of his speeches on the night. Overall, De La Salle won four of the seven categories and with it the title of Lasallian Public Speaking Champions for 2010. I congratulate all team members for the passion, conviction and commitment they have brought to their public speaking. I also congratulate their English teachers who have guided them over the years. Finally, a big thank you to the parents of our team members who have supported the competition and no doubt listened to repeated rehearsals of their sons’ speeches. Well done to all for an excellent evening. Mr Paul Fegan English Coordinator This year’s chess team has built on the successes of previous years. The junior team has been continually improving with more than 10 regulars who participated in several tournaments. This is a testament to Mr Evans who has worked tirelessly to improve the standard of chess at De La. The year started out at one of the toughest tournaments of the year against Melbourne High and Brighton Grammar, who would go on to be the two best teams in the State. De La came in 4th. During subsequent tournaments we met ACC rivals Mazenod and again battled Melbourne High. Our next tournament was a ‘do or die’ against our Lasallian rivals St James’. At stake was a place in the state finals. The team lifted with 5 of the team’s 10 players registering more than 4.5 points out of 7. We tied with St James’ on 20 points. On a countback De La won. We had made the State finals. Before the state finals was the ACC chess tournament. Having won the Division 2 title last year, we had been promoted to Division 1. We came 6th, winning only 18.5 games out of 56. We were 32 points behind Mazenod 1 and 27 points behind Mazenod 2. The morning of the state finals was a nervous time. We were looking to improve on our 16th place of the previous year. The team consisted of chess stalwarts Daniel Martin, Ben Stott, Iryoung Fan, Nicholas Husek and newcomer Marcus Henriques-Gomes. We had a rough start in the first round with only one player winning a game, but rallied. At the end of the day De La came in at 7th, just half a point off 6th place. Daniel and Ben were consistent each winning 5 games out of 9. Our best player of the day was Iryoung who won 6 games, a top effort.

ACC Chess

Senior Chess

Standing: N. Husek, E. Rocke, A. Howarth Seated: A. Li, I. Fan, D. Martin Absent: M. Henriques-Gomes Special mention must also go to Marcus who won 4 games, (despite being in Year 8!). He is a bright hope for the future.

Nicholas Husek