A sports season of passion and pride Julius Kain Vice-Captain of School (Operations) Additional First teams reporting by Captain of Basketball Brodie Hayward, Captain of Cricket Rory King, Captain of Rowing Seb Salt, Captain of Swimming Matt Galjaardt, Co-Captains of Tennis Jurie Terblanche and Ben Walsh, Captain of Volleyball Nelson Hegge and Captain of Water Polo Jake Marshall. The 2021/2022 Summer Sport season has been fantastic. Overall, the boys played with great passion and fought in very hot conditions against solid opposition in the Public Schools Association.
Playing Sport at Scotch in the summer season is always a treat; wearing your Scotch kit with pride and passion, working with your mates, and enjoying it at the same time. It’s always a pleasure for boys to be able to play on Scotch’s pristine sporting facilities, whether it’s the incredible Memorial Oval or the Scotch Gym. A big thanks goes to the grounds staff who work very hard to get the grounds ready for the fixtures every week. A massive thanks also goes out to all Summer Sport coaches and managers, and Mr Gault, Mr Bridle, Mr Mitchell and the Sport Department for their fantastic work organising teams every week.
Left to right: Marco Ghiselli (Year 12); Year 12s Brodie Hayward (Year 12); Fletcher O’Connell (Year 12) bowling; photographs: Tom Campbell Opposite: Scotch rowers; Scotch students at the PSA Swimming Carnival; Ben Simpson (Year 12) competing in the Open B Medley Relay PSA Swimming; photographs: Tom Campbell
Basketball It was another strong year for Basketball at Scotch, yet again heralding several teams at every year level and being the most popular Summer Sport amongst students from Years 7 to 12. Our younger years, in particular, showed major promise, with the 9As and 8As on top of their respective competitions and the 7As coming second. When the First Team came together at the beginning of preseason, there were a lot of fresh faces eager to earn one of the 10 positions. After lots of conditioning and practice, Head Coach CJ Jackson and Assistant Coach Alex Wood organised a practice match against Hale School and Willetton Senior High School. Both games were a great opportunity for new players to settle into the Scotch style of basketball before the season. The season commenced with a win against Guildford Grammar School, which had boys’ spirits high. Unfortunately, the rest of the term didn’t meet the standard we expected, and after losing the final game of the term to Trinity College, the team entered the summer holidays having lost some hope. At the start of January, training commenced once again to prepare us for the second term of Basketball. Following some changes and with a new team identity, the boys were ready to turn the season around. Using newfound team chemistry, a well-fought win against Trinity gained the team some momentum which continued into wins against Wesley College and Guildford. Although the season finished with a loss to Aquinas College, it was a display of how the boys had come together as a team and worked with and for one another to create a fun and memorable season.
Cricket This season, Cricket wielded some great culture. Numbers rose from previous years in the senior group, and we were able to have four full teams playing most weekends. Temperatures were high, sometimes hitting 40+ degrees, but this didn’t stop the great enjoyment and love for the game every boy playing had. We had great performances in younger teams, with the 9As going undefeated throughout the season, an incredible achievement. The Firsts’ season set out to be a tough one: defending the Darlot Cup. The boys played an attacking brand of cricket throughout the season, putting the team into great positions to win games. The first half of the season didn’t go quite to plan, winning three out of the six games, losing two games we should have won, and the other in the last over. Term 1 saw some great cricket from the boys. The bowling unit performed consistently, bowling sides out for low totals and some good batting to follow on occasion. We finished fifth on the ladder. However, this does not reflect the talent and ability of the cricketers in Scotch’s First XI. If a few games had gone our way, we would have been right in competition for the Darlot Cup once again. A huge thank you must go out to all the coaching staff for helping us throughout the season. Overall, it was a successful season, further establishing the platform for future years to succeed.
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