Badminton Sport BADMINTON FIRST AND SECOND VI Back row: Miss Kelly Feighan (Manager, Second VI), Ivan Tan, Rohan Bose, Michael Harrison, Daniel Tenaglia, Joshua D’Souza, Thomas Gee, Anthony Chiu, Mr Ray Priskich (Manager, First VI) Front row: Jonathan Lo, Christopher Byrde, Brendan Harwood, Shaun Wyn-Jones, Bentley Cheng, Leonard Ong Absent: Justin Mabarrack, Brodie Ryan
Basketball A
vid readers of the Annual will be forgiven if they experience a sense of deja vu while reading this year’s basketball report. The First V once again had an exceptionally strong season, displaying the dedication, desire and tenacity that are required to succeed at the highest level of our sport. Unfortunately, the First VI once again reached a stumbling point halfway through the season when they were defeated by Aquinas. To the Trinity players’ credit they bounced back from this single loss with character and panache, and were undefeated for the remainder of the season, surviving some pressure countdowns to final buzzers including an overtime victory against Scotch. Congratulations to Captain Luke Rogers, Vice-Captain Stephen Martin and all squad members for your commitment to Trinity basketball. Given the extent of this commitment it is unfortunate that the Aquinas game could not be erased and that one heartbreaking loss would result in the dissipation of the Blackwood Cup dream. With home court advantage and depth of personnel, the Trinity team thought that this would be our year. However, the enormity of the occasion appeared to get to the players and Aquinas shut down any vestiges of Trinity offence with some outstanding team defence. Accolades must be given to the Aquinas players and coaching staff who have built something of a PSA Basketball dynasty over the past few years. It will be up to future Trinity teams to step up to the challenge if this trend is to change. The good news for Trinity basketball is that the First VI of the future will be very strong with our teams in the other grades also turning out excellent performances. The Second V, ably led by Year 11 Captain Jamie Gotti, performed admirably in all fixtures, remaining undefeated for the duration of the competition. The boys are to be congratulated for their rugged determination throughout the season and for their hard work and willingness to learn during training sessions. This desire bore fruit with significant improvements in defence and general hustle for rebounds and 50-50 contests. No
doubt, the highlights of the season included the close victory over Aquinas and the eagerness of one player in being able to make lay-ups at both offensive and defensive ends of the court. Our Third V also played some excellent games this season with the win-loss column not doing justice to the true effort and willingness to play that was displayed by the players. The Thirds were unlucky to be defeated by their opposition in some close games that could have gone either way. Special mention must be made of the development made by all Thirds’ players with the quality of games improving from week to week. The Trinity Year 10 teams can also be exceptionally proud of their season, which can be summed up with words such as “undefeated” and “intense”. These are good words to be able to write in an Annual report and it is pleasing to see such quality players coming through the ranks learning to hone their skills and devote energy to the mental elements of the game. The Year 9 and Year 8 teams appear to be following this example with class and it will be interesting to see their further development as they proceed through the grades over the next few years. As always, we are eternally grateful to the efforts of parents and families for their assistance in preparing suppers and morning teas, in scorekeeping and in providing such outstanding support for the players. Thanks also needs to be relayed to our hard working coaches for without them there would be no PSA competition. Finally, given that this is my last Blackwood Cup I would like to end on a personal note by saying that I have been very proud to have been associated with Trinity Basketball during the past twelve years. It has been a privilege to have been able to work with some incredibly talented coaches and players and I look forward to a continued involvement as a spectator, witness to many a future Trinity victory. Ray Priskich First VI Manager
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