By Mrs Julie Collins - Program Leader Sport

Interhouse Sports Carnival

Bill Turner Cup & Bill Turner Trophy

The Bill Turner Cup and Bill Turner Trophy are school football competitions. Around 850 school teams from NSW, Qld, ACT and Victoria participate each year, with all players 15 years and under in 2019.The comp is a knockout format with early round matches starting in Term 1 each year.

Our girls football team has been playing in the Bill Turner Trophy, which is the competition for girls. Our girls had progressed through to the fourth round of the competition and on Tuesday 16/07/2019, we travelled to Toowoomba to play the semi-final for the Darling Downs – Brisbane West area, against Glennie.

Being nervous and excited, our girls took the field with some trepidation. Straight from the get-go, our girls pressured the opposition and pressed high. We played the first half with great vigour and never gave up. This ongoing pressure resulted in a goal to Denika Murray, very late in the first half. The half time break came and the girls were pumped to continue on. During the second half the Glennie girls made a comeback and levelled the score. We continued to play forward with attacking football, but to no avail. We missed a scoring opportunity from a penalty and the score was locked at 1 all at full time. We re-grouped and went back into battle for the 15 minutes of extra time. With plenty of end to end football, we were unlucky not to convert one of our opportunities and with our backline holding strong, the extra time saw no goals for either team. On to penalty shootout we went. Unfortunately we missed a couple of penalties and the Glennie girls came away victors on the day, 3-1 on penalties.

Hard to pick, as all of our players showed great quality across all positions on the field, but we have awarded the player of the match to our goalie, Lillian Jessen, who showed great courage and valour defending our goal even after suffering an injury from landing awkwardly whilst protecting her turf.

Congratulations to this group of young ladies, on progressing to this stage of the competition and also on the way they conducted themselves on and off the field. The ladies should be proud of themselves. Their effort has paved the way for our female football program and it has helped make the future of football at Assumption College look very promising.

Queensland Independent Secondary Schools Netball

This year’s QISSN carnival – 64 teams hosted by Shalom College, Bundaberg, was another great success for the College, both on and off the court. The girls (Amy Harrison, Sophie Otten, Taylah Hoffman, Kaitlin Thorne, Caitlin Skaines, Jasmine Olzard, Olivia Smith and Lillie Clarke) began with a tough draw on day one, and we came away with three close losses (STMC 12 – 14, Xavier Catholic College 14 – 17, Ryan Catholic College 11 – 17). St Thomas More went on to play in the Division 5 Grand Final, an indicator of the strength of the pool we were in. We were up bright and early on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, having wins against St Mary’s Ipswich, Mercy College, and Marist College Emerald, and a one-point loss against St Michael’s, which was an absolute cracker of a game. Having the support of the Confro rugby league team really boosted the girls against Marist, resulting in one of our best victories (23 – 16). We were able to return the favour for the boys’ game against St Edmund’s Christian College, which they won 18 – 10. The girls gave their tired legs some beach therapy at Woodgate on Tuesday afternoon, and we also enjoyed a barbeque dinner with the Confro team on Wednesday night. Player of the match honours over the first three days were shared by Sophie Otten, Amy Harrison and Caitlin Skaines.

Finals began on Thursday, with every game being a must-win in order to secure top spot in our division. We exploded out of the blocks against Gilroy Santa Maria, resulting in an impressive 28 – 4 win, only to come up against St Michael’s again in the semi-finals. Once again, the game came down to the very last seconds, and we were the unlucky victims of the clock, going down 16 – 15 in a virtual replay of our first game against them. This result put us in the play-off for 3^rd and 4^th in Division 6 on Friday. The game was everything a grand final should be, with a strong start from us being slowly pegged back by St Luke’s Anglican College Bundaberg. Early in the second half it looked like they might have had the home ground advantage, but our girls kept their heads up and it was goal for goal until full-time, ending in a draw. The extra three minutes each way was nerve racking for coaches and spectators alike, and Taylah Hoffman (injured earlier) was almost bouncing around on her one good leg. Finally, with a one-point buffer, time was up, and the girls were out of their feet, but ecstatic with the 21 – 20 scoreline. Player of the match for the final three games was again awarded to Sophie and Caitlin. Caitlin was also the recipient of the MVP award for our team for the carnival, as well as being recognised as an up and coming talent through selection in the QISSN Rising Stars team. A huge congratulations goes to all eight girls for achieving 3^rd place in Division 6, and for their impressive skills and attitude across the whole week. Thanks too, to the spectators for their support and positivity on the sideline.