Opportunity

Mr Bryan Hain, Director of Sport

LAST week I shared a story with our sports coaches at TSS and I told them about a barbecue I had with our Open First VIII rowers and the Year 11 First VIII crew. The GPS swimming championships had just finished and after the last swimming race I drove from the swimming complex at Chandler to a small motel in Boonah. The two senior crews had just completed a twilight row on the Friday night and were looking forward to the Head of the River in eight days time. As we sat around the barbecue little did we know what was coming next, we certainly didn’t know the Year 11 First VIII would win in such style and the TSS First VIII would nearly pull off the upset of the 2020 rowing season. We also didn’t know that some kind of virus called ‘Corona’ would sweep through Australia and New Zealand closing down all sport. No one really knows what tomorrow has in store but when it’s your last year at a GPS School, we are all the same …“please just give me an opportunity to compete with my team mates”.

In the lock-down period the sports department created a number of online drills and live fitness sessions. I will never forget when one TSS First team member (a Queensland representative footballer) summed up an intensive ‘one on one’ coach and player session by saying “no disrespect to the coach, it was a great skill development session - but I only really play sport to be with my mates”. Here we were thinking that the student would say, he achieved a lot in a small 10m square, he was also fatigued from the workout, or that he had an awesome skill development session… but no, “it’s just not quite the same without my mates.”

That reminds me of an article I saw from an international coach who was promoting the value of team sport at school in these tough times. “To be part of a sports team requires high levels of co-operation, emotional intelligence, empathy, tolerance, resilience, leadership by example and strong communication skills. Team sports is the only place in society where these qualities are essential in every second of the group’s existence. Qualities desperately needed in today’s politically polarised society.

In searching to find better ways to bridge social, racial, political and economic divides in society, we should remember that team sports were designed as powerful educational tools for building more tolerant, cohesive and understanding (school) communities.”

We all get that message here at TSS, we certainly want to recreate the excitement, the buzz and the vibe we had in training before Corona hit our community. We are also looking forward to having all the boarders back at TSS, building up that mateship across the whole school.

As a Sports Director I have found it interesting that some of our main national sports associations have sent us so much information during the lock-down period basically highlighting what ‘we can’t do’ in Corona period. It’s all been very helpful, but honestly, prior to COVID-19, we have barely heard from some national or state bodies on potential ideas or development material to support big school sports programs like ours. Closing us down is fine, but how about circulating some new exciting ideas to encourage this generation of young athletes to get back into sport and be active!

As I wrote this article towards the end of Term Two, the challenge for us trying to plan ahead and predict what COVID-19 restrictions might still be in place in Term Three. I can’t see GPS Saturdays being exactly the same as 2019, but the overall aim is to make the days as enjoyable as possible for both the boys and the parents. We expect to have to play without changing rooms, canteens, more time between matches e.g. play and go, and we are not sure about the size of crowds for the First team matches.

The good news for all the activities previously cancelled in Term Two is that they have been rescheduled into a very compact Term Three. We have over 1,000 students signed up for the nine sports and activities on offer: Cross country, chess, gymnastics, track and field, tennis, football, rugby, basketball and golf.

Rugby unfortunately had to shorten its competitive season because of the lack of time set by the COVID-19 Stage 3 deadline. That meant ‘no contact in sport before July 11, and this reduced our window to complete the required pre-season schedule stipulated by Rugby Australia. The initial disappointment was eventually overcome by the fact we now have more time to safely prepare ‘all’ our players before the first competitive game on Saturday 8 August.

We are fortunate this year that the first Saturday back ‘18 July’ is a BYE for TSS and this gives everyone an opportunity to settle in before the first round of matches on the 25 July. Each sport will also be sending out their own specific updates and as I mentioned, we can’t wait to see everyone back in action.

Some of you reading this article will be interested in how we might go in one TSS sport, team or activity. I won’t try and predict wins or losses, undefeated seasons or even a trophy in Term Three. What I do know is that we have some great athletes here at TSS who found the lock-down period really frustrating. So as the young footballer said back in Term Two ‘I only really play sport to be with my mates’, and we will field over 1,000 TSS mates each week, from Year 5 to Year 12, all dressed in their red, white and blue, enthusiastic and eager to create a good news story or two for the next edition of Band of Brothers.