Netball

Like many other sports around the world, Football took a break during COVID-19, even at grassroots and school levels, so we missed out on participating in the Bill Turner Cup, U15 and Open Interschool Football this year. The boys who were eligible to play their last year of the Bill Turner Cup in 2020 were unable to have one last dig and get themselves further than last year’s NQ-FNQ area final, and are understandably disappointed they won’t participate in this great competition again. The U15 interschool competition which runs at the same time as Bill Turner was also a casualty of COVID-19 restrictions. The Open competition in Term 3 coincided with the restart of local club Football, and as such, we didn’t get enough interest in a team with the young men too focused on studies, their club Football or both to be able to spend more time playing school Football. Term 4, however, was a different matter. Restrictions on interschool competition had eased, and we had a great turnout of over 35 boys interested in playing Football, so two even teams were entered into the local interschool competition. A large number of Year 7 boys make up the teams, and all were excited to pull on the blue and white to represent the Park for the first time. Mr Paul Bruce and Mr Bill Mitchell both coached a team, assisted by Mrs Gregory as manager and administration. The games got off to a rough start with the draw being changed a few times due to other schools withdrawing from the competition, but at the time of writing, both teams had a win in their first game. Looking to 2021, the Football program is hoping to run with a number of new initiatives:

• Partner with Brisbane Roar Academy to have skills sessions run once a term at school

• Participate in the EREA annual Football carnival at St Joseph’s Nudgee in the Easter holidays • Participate in strength and conditioning sessions in the IPC gym one or two mornings a week • Year 11 and 12 boys tour of New Zealand in the June/July holidays playing against other Edmund Rice schools, and partnering with Wellington Phoenix for a skills session Here’s hoping that in 2021 we get back to a Bill Turner Competition and all the other usual interschool Football competitions we usually participate in. Paul Bruce | Pastoral Leader - Carew House