Last weekend marked the last round of the AIC cricket, AFL and volleyball season for 2017. Much planning and preparation goes into each season in order to give each player an opportunity to develop their skills and enjoy the experience of playing school-boy sport. Naturally, the boys and their coaches are competitive and we, as a College, certainly do encourage all team members (players and coaching staff) to be the best they can be and to aim towards taking out premierships or aggregates if on offer. Although winning is not why we participate in sport there is no shame in proclaiming that we wish to be successful and go for the win if done in the correct manner.
At any level in sport it is ideal for all players, coaches and supporters to take their wins and losses gracefully. During this past term we had a number of teams who were able to achieve premierships. Unfortunately we had a number of teams who fell just short and lost their last game and were unable to take out a premiership this year. We had some teams who were middle of the road in terms of results. My personal belief is that the true success of a school-boy sport season is gauged on the enjoyment experienced by each player and the relationship that each player has formed with his fellow team mates and coaches whilst participating as well as their progression of skill development.
I have received a number of positive emails this week from parents who have relayed to me the joy and positive experience that their son experienced throughout the season as a result of being in a positive team environment led by the coaches. This for me is as equally, if not more, pleasing to hear than the number of premiership we won.
Overall, Villanova managed to secure two AIC cricket aggregate premierships, six non-aggregate premierships and a further two undefeated teams in the Year 5 and 6 competition. Our AFL players did extremely well in the inaugural year of AIC AFL to produce one undefeated team from the four entered. Unfortunately, in Volleyball, we were unable to secure any premierships this year. A more in-depth report for cricket, AFL and volleyball is listed below.
Congratulations go to all players on a sensational season, particularly those players whose teams gained a premiership or were undefeated. On behalf of the entire College I wish to thank and congratulate all the coaches, managers and all players who produced their best week in, week out for themselves and the College in order for Villa to have such a successful season. Well done to all!
Just as one season ends the next starts. In fact, the preparations for the up-coming chess, cross country, rugby and football seasons have been in the pipeline for many months, much spanning back into 2016. The Sports Office has advertised the important dates and information regarding Trimester Two sport for many weeks. This information is found on the school website. Morning notices at school during pastoral, the newsletters and the College website are our 3 main avenues for communication. If one needs any information regarding sport please continue to check these avenues.
Rugby and football trials for Year 7-12 are held either on a Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday afternoon. Year 5 and 6 rugby and football are held either before or after school at Little Langland’s or on Whinstanes. The complete training schedule is found on the website. Training will re-commence first day back next term.
A complete set of AIC rugby and football trials for all teams will be held this weekend and the first weekend back next term. As part of the agreement during sign-on, all players must make themselves available to participate in all training sessions and on game days throughout the entire season. I thank all those people within our community who are heavily involved in the coaching and officiating roles at these events. It certainly does take the effort of many people to ensure our boys are getting the opportunity to play sport and to represent their College. Thanks to you all and best wishes for the up-coming chess/rugby/football/cross country seasons!
AIC Rugby and Football Trials
Unfortunately St Laurence’s were unable to trial against Villanova in all year levels of rugby and football this weekend. The weather has had a significant impact on the preparation of both Colleges in readiness for this weekend’s trials. Villanova will now use this opportunity to conduct internal trials for all year levels for both rugby and football at Villa Park. All players are required to attend the trials this weekend in order for coaches to assess all players and make team selections. The only trial matches to be played v St Laurence’s will be the 1st and 2nd rugby and football teams. These matches will be played at Villa Park. Given the inclement weather we ask all parents to be patient with selection/trial process. As we are playing internal games at Villa Park we ask all players to bring two sets of jerseys this weekend, the Villa Jersey as well as any club or multi-coloured jersey. This will help differentiate the teams playing on the day.
Annual Sport Club Luncheon
Please be advised that the annual Sports Club Luncheon will be held at the Gabba on Friday 19th May. This year the special guest speaker is Kerry O’Keefe – Australian Cricket Player and Commentator, as well as Villa old boy and Olympian (Javelin) – Josh Robinson. Tickets are $140 per head and are available for purchase now through the Sport Lunch Invitation. All money raised is used by the Sports Club to improve sporting facilities in many areas across the College. This is an excellent event and I strongly encourage as many people as possible to ask their friends and families along and enjoy an afternoon of fun, food, drink and entertainment. Not to be missed!
Rugby, Football and Chess Trial Schedule – Friday 24th and Saturday 25th March
Please go to the College’s website to view all times and venues for this weekend’s trial fixtures at Villa Park. Simply scroll down on the College’s home page to the ‘Latest News’ section and click the ‘Weekly Fixtures’ section.
AIC Cricket – Mr Chris Everding, AIC Sports Co-ordinator
Last weekend marked the end of the AIC cricket season. Our round against Ashgrove was always going to be tough but we were confident that our sides were going to be competitive and that we could possibly come away with 6 aggregate premierships. Unfortunately, we finished with 2 aggregate premierships after a very hard fought round.
Overall, Villa finished 3rd in the aggregate behind Ashgrove and St. Laurence’s College but we were really only 7 wins away from retaining the aggregate shield. The two rounds against Padua and SPLC hit us hard and the 2nds, 3rds, 10A and 10B premiership games all came down to the final round, but Ashgrove were too strong on the day.
Congratulations to the 8B and 7B sides for winning aggregate premierships and to the 8C, 7C and 7 Gold teams were the only non-aggregate premiership winning teams.
In the Junior School two sides, 6A and 6 Green, went through the season undefeated, while the 6B and 5 White sides only lost 1 game.
Congratulations also to the following year 7-open teams for their top 3 finishes:
2nd place- 3rd XI, 10A and 10B
3rd place- 2nd XI and 9C
AIC Cricket Premierships and Undefeated Year 5 and 6 Teams/Coaches
8B – Ryan Carr
8C – Neville Jeffs
7B – Ravin De Wijeyeratne and Damon Mulcahy
7C – Ben Lynam
7 Gold – Matt Smith
6A – Stewart Rieck
6 Green – Matthew Watson and Dominic Coote
Many thanks goes to the following who coached a team this year. Your efforts have enabled the boys to work hard and achieve very good results all season.
Staff: Matt Smith, Ben Lynam and John Holroyd.
Parents: Mitch Castles, Stewart Rieck, Phil Horton, Neville Jeffs, John Godwin, Rob Cole, Rohan McCaul, Bruce Stuart, Michael Lee, Mark Eustance and to Lee Parker and Jamie Mullins(past parents) and Gary Mulcahy
I would like to make special mention to following group of Old Boys, who have returned to the College and helped out with the program. Some of these young men are only in their first year out but they have made the effort to get involved and the impact they have had on the boys, particularly the Junior School boys, has been invaluable and they all thoroughly enjoyed having these men as coaches:
Nick Underhill, Patrick Weightman, Dylan Foster, George Kalouris, Tom Delaney, Matt Donegan, Josh Wall, Wilson Lam, Matthew Pertnikovs, Emmanuel Alexion, Sean Parker, Josh Fraser, Adam Loudon, Ben Keller, Jacob Mulcahy, Louis Carlton-Jones, Dominic Coote, Matthew Watson, Ben Stuart, Jack Blanchfield, Josh Mullins, Aidan Dooley, Jun Tominaga, Gus Hicks, Tom Valetic, Max Clegg, David Lloyd, Zac Genrich, Damon Mulcahy, Ryan Carr, Lachlan Wolf, Matthew Keller, Harry Stanfield, Justin Lee, Will Stokes, Ravin De Wijeyeratne and Sean Finnimore.
Without the support of the our parents and Old Boys, it would be difficult to field all of these cricket teams, so again thank you.
Thanks also to the self-elected cricket managers who assisted with the running of matches, organised rosters, scored and organised morning or afternoon teas for players and their families.
Thanks also to Nathan Dufty for coordinating the coaches and helping to run training sessions for many of our cricket teams and to David Short for his invaluable assistance with the cricket program.
AIC Volleyball – Ms Barbara Dewis, AIC Volleyball Co-ordinator
The AIC Volleyball season began well; however, Villa’s endeavour to improve on the previous year’s results was not to be. Villa finished a creditable sixth in the overall aggregate. This may be a disappointing result but there were some memorable moments that are worth mentioning – 10A’s thrilling win over SEC which had the supporters on their feet as each rally was played; 7A emphatic win over Padua with only six players as well as the much talked about win on SPLC, and most importantly, the 3-2 win against SPLC by the 1sts at home.
2017 Volleyball had begun at the beginning of Term Four the previous year. There were trials for team selections as well as preparations for some teams to participate in two separate competitions prior to the season commencing. In total, Villa nominated 19 teams to participate in the AIC Volleyball season. Coaches were challenged in making their selections for those teams. Once again there was a large contingent of boys vying for selection.
As mentioned above, prior to the trials beginning in November, Villa entered two teams in the inaugural Provence Cup that was organised by Iona College. The Provence Cup will now provide Villa with a platform to gauge players’ performance as a precursor to the National Volleyball Schools Cup held in Melbourne each year.
Trial games against, SLC, Iona and Marish Ashgrove allowed each coach to finalise their team selections. Amid these trials was a coaching clinic for all players to further develop their skills prior to the commencement of the season proper. The younger players were introduced to some phrases such as ‘Bow & Arrow’(serving); ‘Pray set out’(setting) ‘Batman, Superman, Robin, Kapow’(hitting) and ‘Look through the net’. These phrases will resonate as each new player is introduced to the game of volleyball. I encourage all players to reflect on their individual performance to help them in preparations for next season.
I would like to say ‘Thank You’ to all coaches for their time and patience in sharing their knowledge of the game to the players. Thanks must also go to all players and to their parents especially, who come to each game to give support and encouragement during games.
This year we say farewell to a number of families who have been involved in volleyball here at the College since I arrived. Those families are – Cooke (Charlie); Price (Paddy); Rhodes (Julian); Gilhooley (Jack); Templeton (Lochie) and Dwyer (Patrick). The Villanova volleyball community thank you for the memories of your son’s volleyball journey at Villa.
One family, in particular, is worth mentioning in saying ‘Thank You’ are Brad and Vicki Templeton for their tireless work in the canteen throughout many volleyball campaigns. They were also representatives for volleyball at Sports Club meetings that are held throughout the year.
‘Life is like VOLLEYBALL…we SERVE ourselves, we PASS things along, we SET things up, and we FINISH things off. Sometimes we have to recover, but eventually we ROTATE and the cycle continues.’ C. Tracey
AIC Chess – Mrs Sally England, AIC Chess Co-ordinator
This Friday we will be competing in the first trial game for the season against St Laurence’s at home. All three levels will compete – Junior, Intermediate and Senior. The game will kick off as soon as the teams arrive. Two games will be played and we hope to be finished sometime around 5:30pm hopefully 6:00pm at the latest.
The boys play in their formal uniform not sports uniform. The Juniors will play in the lower library and can be picked up from there. We are not providing afternoon tea this week so please bring food for after school. The first week back will also have a trial game will be away. The boys will travel by bus and be returned to the college usually by 6:30-7:00pm.
Coaching has finished for this term and will recommence on Friday, April 21 at 7.30 in the library. Good luck to the boys on Friday but enjoyment for the night is the main priority.
AIC AFL – Mr Adam Fry, AIC AFL Co-ordinator
What a fantastic year for Villa AFL. In the inaugural AIC competition, we had over 60 players don the Green and Gold for what was a terrific season of footy. It was fantastic to see from the very first trials back in 2016 the eagerness and determination to do well and compete amongst some of the big AIC schools. From the very first weekend both Mr Conlan and I could see the fight in these boys across all grades and that never waned until our last game on Saturday.
A special mention must go to the year 6A team on an undefeated premiership season. It was incredible to watch your skill, teamwork and, of course, sportsmanship across the whole competition. Unfortunately, our other 3 teams fell just short but I know that we are all keen to get “stuck back in” for next season. I applaud all players on their continual effort, respect and comradery amongst the group and it has been a huge thrill for both Matt and I to coach the boys throughout the whole season.
I would like to say a big thank you to firstly all the parents for your continual support and running around for each boy to ensure that we had such a successful season. I would like to say thank you to Craig, Erika, Blake and Chris in the sports office for all your work behind the scenes to ensure a fantastic season. Finally, I would like to say a massive thank you to all coaches: Sean, Joel and, of course, Matt for your hard work and dedication to these players throughout the season. Without our coaches our season would not have been even close to what it was and the boys thoroughly enjoyed having you all show them your skill and commitment to the cause.
It has been an unforgettable season of Villa AFL and that would not have been possible without all our players putting in one hundred percent week in, week out. I look forward to trials and training getting underway at the end of 2017 and cannot wait for round one in 2018.
AIC Cross Country
Information regarding the up-coming AIC Cross Country season and the commencement dates for training will be published in next week’s newsletter. Please stay tuned.
AIC Rugby and Football Training/Trials
The complete Year 5-12 Rugby and Football training schedule is posted on the College’s website under the AIC rugby and AIC Football sections. Training/trials have begun. Training will continue next week as per training schedule below.
Once all Year 5 and 6 teams have been selected they will then move to a different training schedule commencing Week Two Term Two. All Year 7-12 will remain the same as below.
ALL Years 5 and 6 parents are asked to be patient regarding selections for both football and rugby teams. The process of placing boys into teams is a difficult one and will take quite a long period of time before coaches start to settle on teams. There is a trial this Saturday, training next week and the first week back followed by another trial against SPLC. The coaches will not really know the final make-up of teams until after this final trial on the 22nd April. If students are away from school and miss a trial, it will not have any impact on the placement of the student but could, if they miss too much of the trial process. Please do not worry about this and let your son know that he should not be worried. All students signed up will make a team. As we have said on many occasions, we just want to get as many boys out playing for Villa as possible, regardless of the side they make or don’t make and we feel it is important for parents to speak with their sons rather than trying to undermine coaches.
Please note
- Rugby and Football Trials will continue next week. This is the last week of Term One.
- This schedule is for next week and the first week of Term Two. The training schedule from Week 2 onwards will differ ONLY for all year 5 and 6 football players. It will remain the same for all of the rest of the College.
- All teams training at Villa Park will be bussed to the venue. Parents are responsible for collecting their son/s after training from all venues.
- Please note finishing times differ for year 5 and 6 students to the rest of the College. Parents are asked to be at the training venues on time to pick up their sons. Students not collected within 15mins of training concluding will be brought back to Goold Hall where they will wait outside the foyer.
Date Claimers (as per College Calendar)
- AIC Rugby and Football Internal Trials (1st and 2nds Rugby and Football v SLC) Saturday 25th March (all teams)
- AIC Rugby and Football trial v SPLC Saturday 22nd April (all teams)
Football/Rugby Referees
With the growing number of teams and with split venues, we are in desperate need of Football and Rugby referees. If you can assist with refereeing games, please contact:
Villa – Fit
Please refer to the Villa Fit page for Term Two registrations. Please note Year 5 and Year 6 Villa- Fit can only accept 16 students.
Mr Craig Stariha, Director of Sport