Sports Newsletter Habs Boys School Summer Term: First Half
Contents CRICKET AT H L E T I C S SQUASH WAT E R P O L O CO-CURRICULAR T I M E TA B L E SPORTS PA R T I C I PAT I O N
A Message from the Director of Sport Save the Date J O I N T S P O R T S D AY T H U R S D AY 3 0 JUNE 2022
Dear Parents and Guardians, I wanted to share with you some brief highlights of sport at Habs during the first half of this summer term. It feels like such a blessing that we have enjoyed such a busy, enjoyable and hugely successful sporting term. Our ambition to provide all students with opportunities to play within our three-tiered structure of Priority, Performance and Participation levels of sporting activity; featuring franchise competitions, Inter House events, social and recreational activities, and of course, numerous competitive fixtures with other schools, has meant that a very high proportion of our pupils have enjoyed taking part in physical activity. There have been some incredible individual and team performances across the full range of sports, in tough block fixtures on our circuit through to the challenges faced in county and national competitions. Our students have faced these, learned quickly from the experiences and enjoyed some very successful results. Most pleasingly though has been seeing the conduct shown throughout where the character of our pupils has been a showcase for the positive values which underpin all that we do here at Habs. There is so much I would like to write about, and celebrate, but have focused here on the season thus far for cricket, athletics and tennis and included some
other notable performances for those involved with squash and water polo. I am indebted to my colleagues for their hard work and to the boys for the enthusiasm they have shown. There have been a staggering number of training sessions and fixtures taking place across all age ranges and ability levels and it promises to be just as busy when we return for the second half of the summer term. I am also really looking forward to seeing everyone involved with our first joint Schools’ Sports Day on Thursday 30 June. In the meantime, I hope that you all enjoy a very wellearned rest, in between your studies and fixtures for clubs and counties, and I look forward to seeing everyone back on Tuesday 7 June. Yours sincerely,
Ryan McIntosh Director of Sport
Cricket This term began with 120+ students attending pre-season training to prepare for the busy cricket term ahead. Students have continued to fine tune their skills participating in cocurricular training sessions both as teams and as individual and small group training sessions to prepare for the 223 fixtures taking place this term. So far students have played 112 fixtures scoring a total of 11,947 runs. We have seen notable performances from Jay (11H1) pictured below scoring 100 no against MCC and Ashish (U6M2) 5 for 77 (27 overs) against Forest School and 5 for 12 (14 overs) against St Albans and Atharv (7R) 100 NO against Forrest School. We have seen an incredible team performances by the U15C, U15D, U13D who are still playing at a 100% win record.
1ST XI AGAINST HAILEBURY
4TH XI AGAINST HAILEYBURY
U12A AGAINST HAILEBURY
Athletics
It has been a busy term for the schools athletics teams. We have 16 co-curricular sessions that take place during lunchtime or after school school led by Mr Lawrence and our athletics coach Mr Norris. These training sessions include focus on sprints, middle distance, throws and jumps. The teams have competed in rounds 1 to 4 of the Herts League, along with the first round of the track and field cup. We are thrilled that the Junior and Intermediate teams have qualified for the regional finals in the track and field cup and will compete in these after half term. Our aim is to qualify for the national finals – so watch this space! There have been multiple school records broken this term and we are excited that we have notable performances coming from a very promised group
Squash We are delighted to announce that Daniel (10R2) has been selected as the number one player in the South of England to represent the region at the Aspire Team Championships. The competition will take place at Warwick University on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 June.
of athletes in Year 7. There have been three recordbreaking performances from Lani (7R) and Jimi (7M). Lani has broken two records: the Year 7 record for long jump with a fantastic jump of 4.89m and Year 7 200m with a time of 26.4 seconds. Jimi broke the record of the 80m on his debut for the school with an outstanding time of 14.50 seconds. Congratulations to both students on these achievements. Both squads are looking forward to more competitive fixtures after half term, including the track and field cup regional round, the east area school finals and the Hertfordshire County Championships. The athletes will also be looking forward to competing at the joint schools Sports Day at the StoneX Stadium.
Tennis County Doubles Championship
This half-term has seen the Astros transform back into tennis courts leaving a distant memory of the Autumn Term hockey pitches. 87 students have signed up to attend the junior school sessions running at lunchtimes with 23 students attending lunchtime co-curricular sessions in the middle and senior school. These training sessions have allowed students to prepare for the exciting events that are scheduled for this term including the Herts County Schools Championships, the Independent School Championships and the Year 7 Herts Schools Tournament. At the end of April Sam Zlotnik (8S) & Kaaviyan Pradhaban (8J) won the U14 Hertfordshire Schools County Doubles
Championships held at Welwyn Tennis Club. They fought off competition from 15 other teams in the draw with fine victories against St Albans Boys and Chancellors before winning 4-2 in the final against Monkswalk. Photo above of the full U14 team (left to right): Josh (9H1), Alex (9M1), Saaj (9R2), Kaaviyan (8J), Sam (8S) and Gautham (9C1).
Water Polo
WAT E R P O L O U 1 3 s
National Finals Runner Up We have over 30 pupils who train regularly and complete for a squad of 13. The level of commitment of some of our players in incredible; they are doing three sessions a week, including before school water polo of Friday mornings and this is on top of their other co-curricular clubs. This level of dedication demonstrates our pupils’ ambition and sense of community. Our improvement since last October has been phenomenal. We started the preliminary round of the national schools’ cup and finished unbeaten against Bedford, Warwick and QE Barnet, so were seeded as one of the top six schools. Our first nationals qualifer saw us impressively beat Bolton 5-1 (U13 finalists for the past seven years), Northampton 4-2 (U13 finalists for the past four years).
The finals were against the national champions Trinity, KES and Bedford. It was a tough match, losing 6-1 to Trinity in our first match. Our pupils knew they had made mistakes and had to show the grit and resilience to come back as a team from the defeat, they went onto win against KES 3-1. Their determination and ambition to strive for a medal was electrifying and in the Semi Final won against Bedford 5-3. In the final we came face to face with Trinity again. We are so proud of our U13 waterpolo team and want to thank the pupils for their solid commitment throughout the year. They have exemplified our school values – their level of ambition and courage has been inspiring. We are delighted to be rightly back on the podium and are looking forward to the years ahead.
Water Polo WAT E R P O L O U 1 5 s Our season started back in November where we played in first tournament away at QE against some of the best schools in this age group, including QE, St Paul's, City of London and Highgate. We had a mixture of successes, ending up third in the round and progressed through to the plate
semi-final. In the semi-final at Bedford Modern School, we played against Bedford, Bedford Modern and St Beads and St Johns. Whilst we drew one game and lost two, it was a great experience for our younger players and great preparation for future years
WAT E R P O L O U 1 8 s The U18s team have put a huge amount of time and effort into their swimming and water polo training. The team have sacrificed their mornings for early swimming sessions starting from 7.30am and Friday gym sessions from 7.15am. This commitment to the squad has shone in our games and demonstrates the ambition of our students. The Habs first team can hold their heads high with a very successful season. Despite starting the season with multiple player injuries but we persevered and won the majority of our games. The successes gave us further strength and belief in our abilities and we saw
significant wins into the Spring Term, getting through the London league semi-finals and then finals. The London league finals fell on the day before Field Day, this meant most of our team had to leave and we had to forfeit our last match, finishing fourth. In March we began our Nationals journey. We had the semi-finals and we knew we needed to finish in the top two to progress to the finals. We started with a difficult defeat against Alleyn’s School. The team showed courage and determination to turnaround their remaining games, winning them all and finishing in second place, qualifying for the finals and finishing in the top six in the country.
A big thank you to both Mr Brkovic and Mr Jovanovic for their efforts and time spent in helping our water polo squads throughout the year.
Co-Curricular Timetable Summer
Before School (7am to 8.15am)
M O N D AY
Lunchtime (1pm to 1.35pm)
After School (4.15pm to 5.15pm)
Y4/ 5/6 Touch Rugby – 12pm to 12.30pm
Prep Swimming Squad Year 3 and 4
Cri cket – Individual and Small Group
4pm to 5.15pm (Lifeguar d)
U12/U14 (Coach)
Swim Clinic
Wat er Polo U14/15
Fitness Suite U13/U12
Fi t ness Suite – U15/U16
Cricket U15/U18 (Coach)
Tennis – U12/U13/U14
Athletics – Long Jump/Tr iple Jump
At hletics – Shot Put
Tennis – U16/U17/U18 (fixtur es take
At hletics – Javelin
priority over courts) Trampolining Invite only GS Hall
T U E S D AY
Swimming Al l Ages 07.30-
Y3/4/5/6 Tennis – 12pm to 12.30pm
Y5/6 Cricket – 4pm to 5.15pm
08.30 ( )
Fi t ness Suite U15/U16
Water Polo U12 Boys and Gir ls
Swi m Clinic All Years
(Lifeguard)
HabsDash
Fitness Suite U18/U17
Tennis – U15/U16/U17/U18
Cricket U12 Boys/Girls (Coach)
Cri cket – Individual and Small Groups
Athletics – High Jump
U13/U15 (Coach)
Athletics – Discus
At hletics – Sprints
Tennis – U15/U16/U17 (fixtur es take
Rugby – U18/U16/U15 Touch League
priority over courts)
U15 Basketball
Climbing
Fi t ness Suite U12/U13
Prep Cricket Year 6 - 4pm to 5.15pm
Wat er Polo U12/13
Prep Swimming Squad Year 5 and 6
Tennis – U12/U13/U14
4pm to 5.15pm (Lifeguar d)
Rugby U12, U13, U14 Touch League
Fitness Suite U15/U14
Cri cket – Individual and Small Groups
Cricket U13 and U11
U12/U14 (Coach)
Tennis – U14/U15/U16 (fixtur es take
W E D N E S D AY
At hletics – Discus
priority over courts) Athletics – Long Jump / Tr iple Jump Athletics – Javelin U12/U13 Softball
T H U R S D AY
Staff i n Fit ness Sui t e 07: 00-
Y3/ 4/5/6 Tennis – 12pm to 12:30pm
Thursday Y3/4 Cricket – 4pm to
08:15
Fit ness Suite U18/U17
5.15pm
Staff Squash 07: 00- 08: 15
At hletics – Shot Put
Water Polo U13
Swimmi ng Al l Ages 07.30-
At hletics – High Jump
Fitness Suite U16
08.30 ( )
At hletics – Track
Cricket U14 (Coach)
Cricket – Individual and Small Groups
Athletics – Hurdles
U13/U16
Athletics – Middle Distance
Wat er Polo U16/17/18
Tennis – U16/U17/U18 (fixtur es take
Tennis U12/U13
priority over courts) A Level and GCSE Sports Science Study Support Yoga U14/15/16 Climbing
F R I D AY
Staff i n Fit ness Sui t e - 7am t o
Y3/4/5/6 Athletics – 12pm to 12:30pm
Y3/4/5/6 Athletics – 12pm to 12:30pm
8.15am
Fi t ness Suite U14
Tennis – U12/U13/U14 fixtures take
Staff Squash - 7am t o 8.15am
At hletics – Sprints
priority over courts)
Water pol o U12/13/ 14 7.30am
Cri cket – Individual and Small Groups
to 8.30am
U15/U16
Y3/4/5/6 Morni ng Fit ness –
Tennis U14/U15
8.10am t o 8.30am
Wat er Polo U13/U14/U15
Sports Participation
Summer Term 1 Sports and Co-Curricular Participation CO-CURRICULAR SPORT
55
sports clubs running
throughout the summer
term including our main
sports along with summer activities such as softball and outdoor volleyball. C O L L A B O R AT I O N We are thrilled to be running to collaborative cricket sessions with the Girls' School this term along with mixed lacrosse, trampolining and water polo.
No. of students so far this year
200 150 100 50 0
Y7
Y8
Y9 Y10 Y11 Y12 Y13 Participation
CRICKET Number of runs scored per team this year
2793 4872 2793 11947
Lower school Middle school Senior school Total
60% Win Percentage this term
112
Fixtures played (so far this term)