Sport
20090803 Monday 3 August 2009
Some of these events have resulted in physical violence between competing spectators and against match officials. In contrast to that, my observations of the APS and APS/AGSV sporting competitions in 2009 are that they have seen excellent behaviour from all school communities.
The APS and APS/AGSV competitions are structured so that, apart from the first teams, students playing in regular weekly fixtures are in competitions that do not have premierships. The individual games are competitive and often strongly contested but the spirit of the competition is such that the overwhelming desire to win to ‘book a finals place’ or ‘win a premiership’ is not there.
The focus in all teams should be on skill development; developing fitness; enjoyment of the sport and the competition; building team spirit and camaraderie; and developing lasting friendships through playing with school peers. We would like all of our teams to be competitive and believe that young people develop further resilience through experiencing the highs and lows of playing in sporting teams.
Haileybury has over 2,000 students competing each Saturday. I have been very pleased with the attitude of our students to their sport this year and with the demeanour of most teams in the competitions. Last week provided a number of typical examples.
It was a particular pleasure to watch the Cross Country boys and girls compete at the Haileybury-hosted event at Berwick on Saturday. With significant rain in the days leading up to the event, the course around the Berwick flood plain was heavy in parts and presented a great test for all runners. Haileybury girls and boys teams won their respective races. What impressed me the most, was the great spirit demonstrated by runners from all schools at the end of the race. There was a lot of hand-shaking and enquiring about each other’s performance and genuine respect for each other. It was a credit to all schools involved.
I also watched a very strong Haileybury Year 7 Soccer team play superbly to comfortably defeat Scotch. This team demonstrated a remarkable level of cohesion for a group of this level. On the neighbouring ground at Berwick, the Year 7 Football team went down by several goals to a very strong Xavier side. The Haileybury boys were given an excellent talk at three-quarter time by Mr Sean Allcock (Head of Boys Middle School at Castlefield), who spoke about character and determination. The boys then played the game out to the end and, in fact, won the last quarter. They walked off having lost the game, but proud of their efforts, and have grown a little as young men.
The toughest game of sport I witnessed last week was the First XI girls Soccer game between the two undefeated sides – Haileybury and Carey. The girls on both sides played with great skill and rugged determination in the pouring rain. The game seesawed and a last second Carey goal saw the fairest of results, a 3-3 draw. I was very proud of the performance of the Haileybury girls, but equally, I was delighted with the nature of the competition.
APS and APS/AGSV sport provide a good level of competition. I believe it is played in a healthy atmosphere that promotes personal growth and enjoyment of physical activity whilst remaining at a healthy competitive level.
