As a member of the 24 strong GSV (Girls Sport Victoria) competition, St Catherine’s School has had the opportunity to be involved in an extensive range of sports. Whether it is for their love of the sport, friendship, to challenge themselves or to ensure they strike a balance between their academic learning and co-curricular pursuits, the St Catherine’s Sports program offers our students the opportunity to choose from a range of sports and be immersed in what is a very positive sporting culture.

This year, the Sport Faculty theme, led by Sport Captains Celia Cody (Year 12) and Nikita Taylor (Year 12), was about inspirational leadership. Our captains, along with their senior cohort, sought to inspire their peers through their professionalism shown on the sporting field and in the pride they shared in representing and enhancing sport at their school. Their professionalism and pride stamped itself on an extremely successful 2019 year of Sport at St Catherine’s and sets a legacy for what the School strives to achieve in the future.

Through GSV Weekly Sport, St Catherine’s students are encouraged to sample new sports as a means of forging relationships and pathways to help build a long lasting affiliation with sport and an active lifestyle. In 2019, our students enjoyed their participation in a wide range of sports and excelled in strong performances in the following GSV finals:

• Junior A & B Tennis
• Intermediate A & B Tennis
• Senior B Tennis
• Junior A & B Hockey
• Senior A Netball
• Junior A & B Badminton
• Senior A & B Badminton
• Junior A Water Polo.

The St Catherine’s Senior B Tennis Team.

The Weekly Sports program has gone from strength to strength in 2019, with the School successfully winning two A Grade Premierships. This success has been built upon by the strong team culture fostered within the programs and an investment in getting the fundamentals right. Premierships were achieved in the following sports:

• Junior A Grade Tennis
• Junior A Grade Hockey.

A highlight of the Weekly Sports program was St Catherine’s dominance in the Junior Hockey competition. After making the GSV Finals series and narrowly missing a place in the final last year, this inspired group of Years 7 and 8 students were fuelled by the opportunity to challenge again in 2019. With an ethos built on working hard, striving for improvement and supporting each other on and off the field, these students were very deserving of their premiership success, which included both A & B Grade wins.

Through the Carnival Sport, St Catherine’s students have the opportunity to extend their sport engagement, furthering their physical competencies and striving for personal and team orientated goals. In 2019, our students approached each Carnival Sport with a genuine drive to get the best out of themselves and their teammates.

In the pool, our GSV Swim Team shared lots of success, performing extremely well in the relay events. The St Catherine’s team qualified for nine of the 12 relay events at the GSV Finals Evening, ensuring St Catherine’s presence was felt on the evening. Individually, St Catherine’s ‘super fish’ Romilly Walker (Year 11) and Madeleine Hooker (Year 9) both excelled, achieving top three performances on the night and both gaining selection within the GSV Representative Swim Team. In the diving pool, our GSV Diving Team qualified for the Division 1 Championships and got the better over arch-rival Lauriston in the final standings. This young team performed extremely well, with lots of enthusiasm and excitement for the sport. Coco Marshall (Year 8) and Dive Captain Lily Trosdal Ryan (Year 12) both qualified and competed well at the GSV Finals Evening.

Year 11 student Romilly Walker gained selection within the GSV Representative Swim Team.

Within Athletics, our GSV Cross Country Team had a point to prove this year. After the bitter-sweet victory of the Division 2 Championship in 2018, this team were committed to getting themselves back in the action of the GSV premier division. After a strong 2^nd place finish in the Preliminary round, our girls once again qualified back into Division 1, finishing an eventual 7^th overall. On the Track, our GSV Track and Field team continued this success. They qualified for Division 1 for the fifth year in a row and finished a very close and competitive 6^th overall. At the GSV Finals Evening, our girls excelled, with 26 girls contesting 42 events. Millie Fraser-Smith (Year 11), Tamsin Sleigh (Year 10), Olivia Nigido-Scott (Year 9) and Louisa Burney (Year 7) all won their respective events, which contributed towards the six gold, five silver and four bronze medals achieved on the night by our team. In addition to the GSV competitions, the St Catherine’s Senior Team qualified to compete at the Australian All School Nitro Championships, which is taking place this month.

Millie Fraser-Smith (Year 11).

The St Catherine’s Rowing program continued to excel at the highest level. Our Junior and Intermediate crews enjoyed their season, learning a lot about the effort, resilience and teamwork required to excel at a Head of the Schoolgirls. Our Senior squad again had an extremely competitive season. Both crews won their way through to their respective A Division finals at the Head of the Schoolgirls Regatta, which resulted in some extremely exciting racing on the banks of the Barwon. The successful season culminated with the St Catherine’s 120 crew ranking as the highest Second VIII crew in the country, while the Fearless Girl crew finished a tight 4^th place overall at the Australian Schoolgirls Rowing Championships.

The Fearless Girl crew competed at the Head of the Schoolgirls Regatta.

The St Catherine’s Snowsports team once again proved to be a dominant force on the mountain. In an outstanding team effort, the Senior Snowsports team took a keen sweep of the Victorian and Australian Interschools events. At the Australian Interschools, Matisse Stafford (Year 8), Kate Gibson-Rowsthorn (Year 8) and Madeleine Hooker (Year 9) were all crowned Australian champions in their respective events. However, once again it was St Catherine’s strong showing in the team events that proved to be the difference in the final results. St Catherine’s won six team events and were podium finishes in a further eight events.

The St Catherine’s Snowsports Team achieved many successes at the Australian Interschools Snowsports Championships.

Although we regularly recognise and praise the performances of those students who wear the light blue on competition day, we also acknowledge the effort and achievements of those who wear different colours, yet still represent the pride of St Catherine’s in all that they do. This year, St Catherine’s had a number of students who represented either Victoria or Australia in teams or squads across a range of sports. The following students must be recognised for their outstanding achievement within sport:

• Megan Chang (Year 7), Soccer Victoria
• Indi Cunningham (Year 7), Cross Country Skiing Victoria
• Lucy Dunlop (Year 8), Hockey Victoria
• Samantha Love (Year 8), Hockey Victoria
• Julia Kent (Year 8), Cross Country Skiing Victoria
• Matisse Stafford (Year 8), Snowsports Australia
• Rosie Oxley (Year 8), Sailing Victoria
• Jemima Wilcox (Year 8), Basketball Victoria
• Zara Bongiorno (Year 9), Cross Country Skiing Australia
• Madeleine Hooker (Year 9), Cross Country Skiing and Snowsports Australia
• Sarah Marriott (Year 9), Cross Country Skiing Victoria
• Olivia Nigido-Scott (Year 9), Track and Field Victoria
• Jeneath Wong (Year 9), Golf Australia
• Mayuri Muralidharan (Year 10), Fencing Australia
• Emerson Stuchbery (Year 10), Equestrian Victoria
• Annabel Sweetnam (Year 10), Snowsports Victoria
• Romy Cantwell (Year 11), Rowing Victoria
• Romilly Walker (Year 11), Swimming Victoria
• Lindsey Ware (Year 11), Equestrian Australia
• Celia Cody (Year 12), AFL
• Sophia Rothfield (Year 12) AFL.

Olivia Nigido-Scott (Year 9) was selected to represent Victoria in Track and Field.

The success of our students within the St Catherine’s Sports program is without a doubt due to the support of our Physical Education staff, specialist coaches, school executive, sports auxiliaries and parents. An especially big congratulations must go to all students from Years 7 to 12 who have been involved in St Catherine’s Sport this year. Their dedication to their peers, sport and school have helped St Catherine’s achieve such outstanding results.

I would personally like to thank the hard work of the St Catherine’s Sports Auxiliary, led by Jodie Cody. The tireless work of this parent supporter group has given a great deal to the Sport community across the year. Their community Run4Fun raised funds for the Monash Children’s Hospital and plenty of spirit for the St Catherine’s community, while their Celebration of Sport Breakfast recognised and acknowledged the performances and spirit of the student athletes within the Sports program.

I also wish to send our sincere thanks and best wishes to our Head of Rowing, David Fraumano, who shall be taking a year leave of absence to pursue his dream of coaching at the highest level. David leaves us to Head Coach the ACT Academy of Sport Rowing Program, in a role that I feel is purpose built towards his outstanding skills and expertise. David, as leader of his Rowing team, has achieved so much for St Catherine’s across the seven years of his tenure. There have been countless wins, most notably the outstanding 1^st and 2^nd place performances of our St Catherine’s crews at the Nationals in 2018 and 2016 respectively. However, more importantly, David’s system has brought about a great deal of preparation, pride and professionalism to our program that has instilled confidence, competence and enjoyment towards so many involved in the sport. I thank David deeply for all he has given to St Catherine’s and wish him the very best for his year away.

As this will be my last Sport Report as Head of Sport, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all staff, parents, community members and of course our outstanding students for allowing me the privilege to share and enjoy sport with you all. It is true, St Catherine’s may be a small school, but we bat well above our weight and it has been thrilling to watch our girls challenge themselves and excel in so many different games of play. I wish St Catherine’s School all the very best for its future endeavours in sport and encourage all to continue to collectively enjoy and strive for common and greater goals.

I leave you all with some pictures that have been special to me and I feel sum up the character that is Sport at St Catherine’s School.

Courageous, Fierce, Fearless, Effort, Collective, Spirited, Care.