Dubai College Sport Newsletter - Term 1 2022-2023

WELCOME TO DC SPORT

Welcome to the first edition of DC Sport which celebrates sporting endeavour and success at Dubai College.

As we continue to train harder, play more games, participate in more competitions, and gain more success, this magazine will celebrate everything we accomplish!

A huge thanks goes to our senior sports captains who are the driving force behind the content within these pages. They have been attending your assemblies, hearing about your successes, and recording them here for all to read.

DC Sport will now become a regular termly magazine. If you have anything we need to know about amazing sporty things that you have been involved in, please contact our friendly senior sports captains and we will make your success, our DC Sport Success!

Enjoy the festive break and bring on Term 2

Andy Jones Director of Sport

Dubai College Sports Staff

ATHLETICS

D A S S A U P D A T E

This year's athletics season has once again started with a bang. Our first two cross country relay events took place at the Dubai Sevens ground. We were able to field A, B, C, and D teams for all age groups, demonstrating the sheer depth of our squad. We came out with wins across the board.

Congratulations and well done to all our cross-country athletes. We would also like to highlight Mark and Ben for their representation of Team GB in the World Triathlon Championship Series. Both athletes performed incredibly well, with Mark finishing the event as U20 World Triathlon Champion.

Finally, we would like to congratulate former DC athlete Lorcan who has recently started his indoor athletics career with the University of Manchester.

All in all, this term has been a fantastic start to a long and exciting athletics season. Next term will see the return of the Fab 5 events as well as the DASSA Athletics Championships. Stay tuned!

Dylan and Laura, Senior Athletics Captains

BOYS BASKETBALL

D A S S A U P D A T E

The boys' basketball year began early, with a pre-season tournament hosted at DC in September. DC had three teams, and went against five other schools, eager to get into season-ready form. After both groups were topped by DC squads, tough losses in the semi-finals to DIA and JESS helped to highlight potential areas for improvement in the team Nandan D and Zach S displayed great leadership throughout the day, as they captained their respective teams Despite the losses, DC players led all tournament stats

Basketball is continuing to grow at DC with over 80 boys training and preparing for the U16 and U19 season this year. It began with pre-season matches against JESS at U16A, B and C and U19A and B. The U19A season began against WIS. While it was close, we managed to take our first DASSA win. On the other side of the sports hall, the U19B team surpassed GEMS Metropole by one point. The following week, standout performances from Alberto P and Hussein E helped the A-team to a commanding 81-33 victory over NAS Unfortunately, the B team suffered a close loss to Safa School

The next A-team fixture was against DIA, a rematch of last year’s finals and a crucial decider for the group standings. It was a hard-fought game that stretched to two overtimes, with a crucial 18-point performance from Saif, but, the score was 86-92 to DIA. However, the following week, we managed to take a comfortable win against Greenfield, securing second place and a semi-final spot.

While the DASSA season rolled on, weekend friendlies for the U16 and U19 teams against the GEMS Gladiators were hosted at DC, in preparation for the World School Games in Abu Dhabi On the weekend of 11th November, two U15 teams and an U19 team travelled to AD for the World School Basketball Championships On arriving at NYU and seeing schools from throughout the Middle East and as far as Russia, we knew that the competition would be fierce. For the U19s, adjusting to the shorter matches was a challenge. However, we still won our first game against Universal American School. Afterwards, tough losses to very strong squads from Raha International and British International School Cairo (BISC) endangered our chances of making the playoffs. To secure our spot, we had to beat our DASSA rivals DIA the next morning, where a brilliant last-minute shot by Tom H and steal from Aman B let us clinch the win After a resounding victory over Collegiate International a few hours later, we were through to the playoffs A solid win in the quarter finals set us up to face Raha, the group winners, again in the semi-finals The game was close and the lead switched hands many times, but we ultimately lost out by four points and a painful defeat.

Meanwhile, after winning their group, the under-15 A-team w looking set to go through to the finals, a buzzer beater from B heart-breaking loss for our U15s. Also, throughout the weeke games, eventually suffering a defeat in the plate finals At the fourth, and the U15A team managed to clinch 3rd All-tournam Amal, and a special mention must go out to Alex M, Maximilian the U19 team despite being in year 11. The weekend was a gre improve and come closer together as teammates.

The day after arriving back in Dubai, the senior A-team h Improvements from the previous two days were evident, as we d our spot in the DASSA finals

The U16 DASSA season has been brilliant so far The A and B winning by a margin of 10 or more points every game, and the over Greenfield and a 44-4 win over DBS. Meanwhile, the U19B early struggles, recently beating GEMS Int to secure third place i

However, as of now, the season is not over. The U16 A-team is and the senior A-team is scheduled to play the DASSA final matches this year It’s been an amazing season so far, packed w all the players I look forward to the closing DASSA games and th

Amal, Senior Boys Basketball Captain

GIRLS BASKETBALL

D A S S A U P D A T E

This season has been an astounding success. So far, we have played JESS, JC and DESC and practically doubled their scores every time.

We started the season with last year's rivals JESS and came away with a winning score of 35 -19. Following this, our streak continued against JC and DESC, where our hard work and continuous improvement, both as a team and as individuals were rewarded by scores of 53-27 vs JC and 55-29 vs DESC.

This leaves us hopeful to continue our success in our remaining two games against GEMS Metropole and DIA Emirates Hills, striving to take away the U19 championship title for another year.

The girls’ continuous training and dedication to the team have led us to create an enjoyable team atmosphere between our Year 12 and Year 13 players.

I would like to end by thanking both Miss Hember and Coach Milos for their never-ending positivity and guidance so far this season. Good luck girls for the next two games!

Keira, Senior Girls Basketball Captain

CRICKET & ROUNDERS

D A S S A U P D A T E

Cricket started early for DC this year with the U13 and U15 squads playing in the Youth Sevens tournament and both coming in third place. Vivaan and Shahryar, for the U13’s, played great all-round performances, proving to be important players in this tournament while Vihaan, has shown his ability throughout all fixtures this year with the bat and the ball. Raghav, for the U15’s, batted well scoring most of the runs for the team and leading from the front as their captain.

The U16 squad started the season off in an impressive manner finally achieving to defeat our rivals DIA Emirates Hills and using their momentum from this victory to top the table undefeated. With a couple of impressive performances from Arnav they managed to make it to the finals where unfortunately they came runners up despite the heart they played the game with. The amount of effort this team has put into this season has been nothing short of incredible and I hope to see them succeed in future fixtures.

Zain, Senior Cricket Captain

The senior rounders season has been extremely successful for DC! Winning three out of the four matches, we ended the season at the top of the league, thanks to both Ms Jones’ coaching and our talented team. A special mention goes to Kayra, who managed to hit quite a few balls over the school’s fences, as well as to Kitty whose outstanding play was recognised by other teams in her achievement of player of the match.

This high level of commitment and team spirit lead to us beating most of our opponents by a significant majority (a difference of twenty rounders in one match and a difference of twelve rounders in another!) and hopefully, this strong performance will continue next year. Overall, it has been a great season, and congratulations to all the girls for their great work throughout this term.

Scarlett, Senior Rounders Captain

BOYS FOOTBALL

D A S S A U P D A T E

U12 A Captain – Tarik

Losing the first two games of the league against JESS and NAS, the U12 A team was able to make a strong comeback to go unbeaten in their final three games, with a notable 2-1 win away at DESC. With a strong end to the season, I have no doubt this team will go far in the DASSA cup

U13 A Captain – Ernie

A positive set of results for the U13 A football team who won two, drew two and lost just a single match in the DASSA division one league. With the league finished, DC finished just a point off the leaders in DESC, despite achieving an amazing victory away against them. With two wins in their final two games, the team should be full of confidence for the coming DASSA cup in term two.

U14 A Captain – Christopher

Underwhelming season for the U14 A team who failed to rack up a single win in the league. However, I have no doubt that Coach Epeli will prepare the team to succeed in the forthcoming DASSA cup

U16

A Captain – Roux

Strong performances for the U16 A team helped them to a third-place finish in the DASSA division one league. Aside from an off game at DESC, the boys had no trouble scoring goals as they netted 19 goals over just 5 games. With an outstanding 7-0 win in their final game of the season, the U16 A team are full of confidence heading into the cup next term.

First XI Captain – Alberto

A strong start to the season saw the First XI comfortably win 3-0 against Kent at home, with the opportunity to have scored many more Heading into DESC, we were ready to win but our dreams were crushed when the referee sent off our starting left back Despite this, we were able to stay in the game until the end where we had a great chance to equalise the game at 3-3 An unfortunate miss saw the game slip out of our hands. In our final game against DIA, we absolutely dominated but failed to take our chances in the final third, resulting in a 3-3 draw.

Alberto, Senior Football Captain

GIRLS FOOTBALL

Girls football this term has started off with a bang. As the DASSA league has begun teams across all years have been busy, working hard to get on top

Starting with the U12 teams, barring one, the B-team have won all their matches so far against Arcadia School, JESS, and The Royal Grammar School Guildford both of which the tactical defence and the great goalkeeping prevented the teams from getting a single goal in. Keep your eyes open as the U12 B team have one major match left against DESC. Meanwhile the U12 A-team have yet to win a match in the league as they have had some narrow defeats and a couple of draws However, with one match left, they can still end the season on a positive note.

Similarly, the U13 A team has persevered through the season starting the DASSA league with a 3-1 win against DESC which followed some losses, and they will end the season with a highly competitive match against JESS The U13 B team have done extremely well this year with three wins against JESS (30), The Arbor School (1-0) and South View (5-0) and a 1-1 draw against DESC. A big congratulations to Jemilla, who scored 4 goals out of the 5 against South View and to Charlotte who scored a hattrick in their match against JESS, also winning her team tea and biscuits with Coach Mrs Saran

The U14 team have has a difficult season which has caused some unfortunate losses however this does not mean that in their final matches of the season they will not be able to pull through with some wins. You Go Girls!

The U16 A team has done amazing with a 7-0 win against DESC, a 2-1 win against JESS, a draw against Jebel Ali and only one loss against NAS. Well done to captain Chloe who scored a hattrick against DESC. The U16 B team had a 5-0 win against Safa Community school with goals across the board, they had tough and highly competitive games against both JESS and DESC and they have their final match of the season upcoming

The U19 A team has excelled this season remaining undefeated with a draw against DESC leaving both DC and DESC tied for the top of the leader board They have their final match against JESS which could put them at the top and winning the league. Congratulations to top goal scorer Danielle Guerin who has managed to come out of the season so far with 3 hattricks! The U19 B team has had an unlucky season so far with last-minute cancellations from other teams and a few tough games however with the last few matches of the season coming up let us see what the girls can do.

Overall, although the season has had its ups and downs, everyone has gone into every match with a positive attitude and great teamwork which has created a great culture within the football community. This could not have been achieved without the encouragement of the coaches who without fail have kept the girls motivated both in training and their matches. Looking forward, teams will be having their last few matches of the DASSA league and we will be training for cup matches and the BSAK 7’s in Term 2 Well played girls!

Areesha, Senior Girls Football Captain

NETBALL

The netball this season so far has been truly outstanding! Early mornings, lunchtimes, after school, one to one technical session, S&C, performance analysis; lots involved in being a DC netballer but from the hard work come rewards. Our age group teams played some amazing netball against the visiting touring 'big guns’ Millfield, Reigate, Hatfield NC, and Stowe during the half term holiday with DC1 remaining unbeaten throughout. We were also excited to have ex-England coach Tracey Neville over during the half term break where she took our U13's for a brilliant training session.

The U13/U15 Youth Sevens was our big first competition, played on two Thursdays with the final played at the Emirates Dubai 7's weekend, our U13's just missed out on the final, placing third but our U15's went onto the Final, after a thrilling game they came short but achieved Runners Up Next came the BSAK tournament in Abu Dhabi where both the U19s and the U14’s came first and then the U16’s and U12’s placed third, a tough hot day for all our teams but good competition for the big tournaments ahead. A few weeks later the U12’s and U14’s came first in our own DC7s tournament and the U13’s placed third.

Safe to say the best was saved until last, DC 1 placed first at the Emirates Dubai 7's tournament for the second year in a row with a clean sweep, remaining unbeaten the whole tournament. An exciting year with international teams playing too, all the hard work paid off, history was made! DC 2 came in at second place to DC 1, beating strong opposition along the way and making the final a truly DC affair, fantastic! DC 3 added to the celebrations by taking first place in the Aspire Cup, again another first for DC Netball

Congratulations to Charlie, Molly, Alana, and Jemma who represented the UAE U17 team in the Europeans in Gibraltar and won Gold.

A mentoring system has been set up between our Senior players and current U13’s where the senior netballers have regular catch ups with the U13’s which is going very well.

Lastly, we are looking forward to the DC Netball Social Event on Saturday 28 January at Sho Cho which we are hoping all family, friends and supporters of DC netball will attend, all in support of our WSG teams and touring Australia squads Congratulations to all the netballers for a fabulous first term, results beyond our wildest dreams The teams are looking forward to DASSA leagues next term, World School Games in June, and the senior Australia tour in July.

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BOYS RUGBY

and what a

Each age group in school had three pitch sessions a week, two S&C sessions with Mr Walsh and one on one technical sessions. Busy but worth all the hard work. Training was great with good numbers in all age groups. The boys showed great commitment and the energy at each training session was special.

We are now all looking forward to having a three week break and then back to 15s rugby in the DASSA league as well as the DESC and DC 10s tournaments. The U16 boys and U13A and B teams will all be traveling to Rosslyn Park in March and the U15 boys will also play in the Portugal 15s youth tournament in Lisbon

Let’s start with the U12s It is an excellent group of young boys who had a brilliant tournament at BSAK missing out in the final against JESS but played some outstanding running rugby. They also just lost out against JESS 50 in the DC 7s tournament. A very talented group and all keen to learn. U13s are going from strength to strength. A magic group of boys who were unbeaten in the 10s and 15s last season. They also had a well-deserved win against Millfield over the half term break. They played great rugby in the DC 7s and won the final against JESS 28-0 in November.

The U14s are really developing into a great team, and you can see the confidence in this group especially after the BSAK 7s where they lost narrowly in the final It was great to see them beating JESS after struggling against them for the last two years. Well done boys and just keep on working very hard.

We are lucky to have a great group of boys playing together and pushing one another for spaces in the A and B team. Our U15s played against Mill Hill from the UK during the October camp and had an outstanding win. We also entered a U16 B team into BSAK, and the boys really stepped up and played great rugby just losing out in the final against a good U16 DESC team What an achievement for these young boys

The DC 7s tournament delivered some great results with our U16 group and they played outstanding rugby in front of big crowds on Pitch 1 U16A winning the tournament and our U16 B-team winning the Plate tournament. Well done!

It has really been a great three months for our U19 boys, and I am so proud of these players. Winning the DESC 7s in October gave us the belief that we can compete against everyone. We played against YARM from North London during our October camp and delivered a great performance of complete dominance up in the forwards, laying a great platform for our backs to run in 8 outstanding tries In November we travelled to Singapore to play in the prestigious SCC 7s rugby tournament and after two days of great rugby we held the cup up as tournament winners What a great achievement!

We came back and were well prepared for the Emirates Dubai 7s. We had a great first day playing some of the best 7s rugby this year so far. We had a tough quarter final and after going up 10 - 0 in the first half we lost narrowly 17-15.

A very disappointing result but I am immensely proud of these boys. Our U19B team made it into the semi-final also playing outstanding rugby They pushed extremely hard in the semis but just fell short against a very big physical U19 Exiles team Both teams learned a lot and will be better next year

Rugby is now 100%

with no restrictions

great three months we had. We had a rugby camp in October for all age groups with three friendlies against UK touring teams followed by the BSAK 7s tournament, SCC Singapore U19 rugby tour, the DC 7s and the Emirates Dubai 7s tournament

Max, Senior Boys Rugby Captain

GIRLS RUGBY

DC Girls Rugby started the season strong, no doubt about that The U19 girls participated in several fixtures including the DESC 7s, BSAK 7s and some friendlies The DESC 7s was for some of the girls their rugby tournament debut, but even so, they played some of the most fantastic rugby DC has ever played. The team went on to win the BSAK 7s, dominating all the games leading up to the final, which went to golden try with a 17-12 victory over BSAK. Massive congratulations to Adina for winning "female player of the tournament".

Two U13's teams and the U15's made their first appearance this year at the DC 7s tournament. The talented U13 A team went on to play in the Plate final against JESS, playing 5 minutes extra time when the game was still undecided Eventually, it went down to a coin toss where unfortunately JESS took the win Following this, the U15 girls dominated up to the cup final, narrowly losing to JESS in the final and becoming cup runners up in their category Some amazing rugby was played over this weekend and the girls set the standard high for the DASSA League which we will be welcoming next term.

The U19 girls represented DC for the first time ever at the Emirates Dubai Rugby 7s in the Gulf U19 Women's Tournament the following weekend. The girls dominated their pool games and quarter finals with a fantastic zero tries conceded. From the start, they progressed confidently to meet theirrivals DESC in the semis. The girls powered through winning the game 12-10. It resulted in a final between JESS and DC on the internationally famous, yet intimidating pitch 1 with thousands of spectators watching the game The DC U19 girls became the first ever school team to win the Gulf title, winning 33 – 12, firmly establishing a new legacy for Girls Rugby at DC SUPERB!

Best of luck to Adina, Tatum, Annabelle and Femke who are travelling to Nepal at the end of the term to compete in the U18's Asia Cup.

Overall, a fantastic season so far, full of quality rugby and hard work, the standards have definitely been set for the term to come. The teams are looking forward to an exciting and eventful rugby season ahead.

Femke, Senior Girls Rugby Captain

SWIMMING AND WATER POLO

D A S S A U P D A T E

Our DASSA swimming season started off with a bang at DC where we hosted 4 other schools in a seeding gala. All schools across Dubai did the same and final rankings were produced: DC A qualified for Division 1 with DC B just missing out and competing in Division 2!

Our first DC A gala was away at WEK and despite our swimmers giving it their best, we narrowly missed out on the podium places. However, this fuelled and motivated the team for our next gala at JESS where we left nothing in the tank, moving us up the rankings to third place!

The B team qualified as the 7th fastest squad in Dubai! They ended up finishing on a high and we are so excited to see how well they will perform in the individual championships at Hamdan this January.

Looking forward, our next gala is home - here in DC! Feel free to come along and support your friends, in our mission for our first win of the season Thank you to all the swimmers who have competed this yearyou all have been amazing swimmers but even better teammates We look forward to seeing more of you in the pool later this season!

Iman and Tom, Senior Swimming Captains

Senior Water Polo started off strong for DC. After a 5-year absence from the DASSA league Dubai College managed to go unbeaten and win the DASSA league for the 2022-2023 academic year.

The first game of the season started off with a 14-4 win over our rivals JESS. The team played very well with some standout performances from goalkeepers AliMahdi as well as our top scorers in the game Ahaan and Christos.

The second game of the season was the toughest our Senior Team faced DESC put up a good performance leading after the first quarter 3-1. However, an impressive performance from the vice-captain Hussein who scored 6 goals for the team meant that DC could come back and win the game 12-9 away from home.

The third game of the season saw DC against DESC at home Outstanding performances from Thomas who assisted 9 goals and a shooting masterclass from our Captain, Christos meant that the DC 1st VII managed to win 17-6 against 2nd Place DESC. Undefeated champions with a goal difference of +24

I look forward to seeing our U15 and U13 teams perform equally as well as our senior boys in Term 3 and hope that Water Polo can become one of DC mainstream sports in the upcoming years.

Christos

Senior Water Polo Captain

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Congratulations to Max, Femke, Annabelle and Tatum who played for the UAE U20 team in the Asia 7's tournament, winning both the men and womens Cups in Uzbekistan.

Congratulations to Charlie, Jack, Heinrich, Luke and Mudiwa who will be playing in the Asia U18 tournament during December in Nepal.

Congratulations to Femke (captain) Annabelle, Tatum and Adina for the UAE U18 team who will be playing in the Asia 7s tournament during December in Nepal.

Senior Girls Rugby Captain, Femke, also representing Belgium in preparation for the World Championships earlier this year.

Congratulations to Tarn and Lia for achieving the �������������� ������������ ���������������� for GCSE Physical Education!

UAE netball representatives – U17 played in Europeans in Gibraltar and came 1st: Charlie, Jemma, Molly, Alana (selected into the training squad: Maria & Chloe)

UAE – Open Squad: Kate, Sophie, Alex, Sam, Evie, Charlie, Jemma, Noorulain, Alana

Both competed with pride and effort - Ben had a tough race, suffering with cramps, but still managed to place 12th overall. Mark won his age group (16-19) and is now the Super Sprint World Champion! WELL DONE!!

If you have a sporting success, please let us know!! We want to hear from you!

Ben (Y13) and Mark (Y12) who both qualified to represent Team GB in the World Age Group Super Sprint Triathlon Finals in Abu Dhabi.