PSA Sport

Trinity has enjoyed an outstanding twelve months in the PSA sporting arena, completing our most successful year ever and arguably the strongest all round performance by an individual school in the history of the PSA Mr Steve Leahy Director of Sport competition. The PSA schools compete for fifteen trophies from the beginning of Term 1 through to the end of Term 3. For one school to be successful in winning eight of these trophies is quite special. The summer sport season resulted in success for the 1st V Basketball, the 1st XI Cricket, the 1st VIII Rowers, the Hamer Cup oarsmen and, for the first time in the College’s history, the swimming team were successful in their quest to win the Tregonning Cup after forty years of trying. The elation of the six point win after seemingly being too far off the pace going into the final relays will be remembered for a long time by everyone who was at Challenge Stadium that night. The result is the icing on the cake for a team which has increased its points tally each year for the last seven years. The 1st VI Volleyball finished a close second in their competition and the tennis players, with many of the Team returning next year, are hoping to challenge the more established tennis schools in 2008. Our results in Term Four were encouraging. Our onfield success continued into the winter season when the 1st XI Soccer and the Senior Cross Country Team remained unbeaten over the ten fixtures and the 1st XVIII retained the Alcock Cup for the fifth consecutive year. The College’s football teams dominated all levels of the competition with the 2nd XVIII, 3rd XVIII, 10A, 10B, 9B, 8A and 8B teams all finishing on top of their respective ladders. The Smarter Than Smoking team, comprising boys from Years 8 and 9, won their Statewide competition and played their grand final at Subiaco Oval as a curtain raiser to an Eagles’ game. It is of course recognised that success is not simply measured by looking into the trophy cabinet and counting the amount of silverware it contains. The success of the sport program at the College can also be measured by the number of teams we field each weekend regardless of results, as well as the attitude of the boys towards committing to a common cause – I believe that the College has been successful in meeting these criteria as well. The latter part of Term 3 saw the athletics team produce a commendable performance in their attempt to retain the Alcock Shield for the fourth consecutive year. Victory eluded us this year and we finished second to a strong Aquinas outfit.

A real challenge that presents itself is for us to improve our results in the sports that we have not been successful at for some time. We have not achieved the level of performance to seriously challenge the stronger schools in hockey or tennis for some years now and our rugby teams have also struggled of late. Our waterpolo and badminton teams also remain towards the bottom of the competition.

Initial steps have been taken to try and develop these sports with the 1st XI Hockey, 1st Waterpolo and 1st and 2nd Badminton teams all being coached by ex–Olympians. The Senior Tennis team has continued to improve for the last three years and hopes are high that this will continue into next year. After a tough year in rugby, there are expectations that the 1st XV will start to work its way back as a competitive force next year – if the level of keenness shown by the boys is anything to go by, an improved performance is guaranteed.

Another challenge facing us is to provide quality coaching and facilities for all our teams. Trinity is fortunate that our boys are passionate about representing their school in sport but unfortunately on some occasions it is not possible to get all the boys a game each week. This is largely a result of a lack of sufficient pitches, coaches, time or in some instances the school we are playing against may not have the same numerical depth as we do in that particular sport. The expansion of PSA sport has reached a stage where radical changes may need to be investigated if the demand continues to grow. Implications of radical change such as playing all teams from Juniors through to Seniors over an entire Saturday would increase the number of teams playing but would also increase the demands placed on families, staff and coaches. Time will tell if such changes need to be implemented.

I would like to thank several groups of people who have contributed strongly to the sport program at Trinity this year: The Trinity staff who give up so much time to coach the boys each week; The parent body without whom we would really struggle to meet the many and varied demands of the sport program; The groundstaff who work tirelessly to provide quality facilities for the boys; The College administration for their support of the coaches and the boys; The Trinity boys who represent their College with such pride and enthusiasm each week.