Sport at De La 2013 With last year being the College Centenary Year, we were hoping to “get off the mark” strongly with sport in the first year of our bicentenary period. Fielding the same number of teams in the ACC Competition this year, we managed to win one more ACC Title in 2013. Our Champion Teams were: ACC Division 2 Athletics, Year 8 Football, Open Golf, Senior B Basketball and Year 7 Cricket. Outside of ACC Competition, we won the Weightlifting Sport and Recreation Cup and VWA Schools League for the third consecutive year in front of our home crowd in the DLS Gym in Term 4. The year didn’t start particularly well with our ACC Swimming Team finishing in 6th place which relegates us into Division 2 for the 2014 Carnival. The DLS highlight for the Carnival was the age group victory of our Under 13 Team. Whilst we do have some talented swimmers, we really need to improve our overall swimming “depth”. Under the guidance of “Team Windley”, our Swimming Squad numbers have increased and all indications are that the boys are primed for a strong tilt at the Division 2 Title in late February next year. We participated in Division 2 ACC Athletics for the second time in the history of the College in a Lasallian Showdown with our “Beach Brothers” from
St Bede’s. With a very committed and consistent effort from the entire team, we comfortably defeated St Bede’s by 30 points to win the Division 2 Title. In addition to the overall victory, we also won the Under 13, 14, 16 and Senior Age Groups as well as the Junior and Senior Cups. DLS is back into Division 1 Athletics next year and with renewed confidence and belief, we need to make every effort to ensure that is where we stay! Towards the end of Term 3, our ACC Cross Country Team had hopes of improving upon their 3rd placing from last year. Despite another honest and determined team effort, we finished 3rd in this year’s ACC Carnival behind St Bede’s and St Bernard’s for the fifth consecutive year. The highlight from the Carnival was the age group win from our Senior Team — a most fitting and rewarding way for our Year 12 runners to sign off on their ACC careers! Although we were clearly ahead of the other three schools in Division 1 and had a number of top ten event place getters, the challenge for our 60 runners again next year is to “run past” at least one of the Top Two schools in 2014. Our strong involvement in ACC Sport and other sporting activities would not be possible without the willingness of the staff who coach and manage our many sporting teams. I sincerely think all of the Coaches for their time, effort and enthusiasm for the ACC Sport program at De La. Special thanks to Simon Brown and Tom Curry, the Sports Assistants, who have not only coached ACC Teams but been integral to the organization and 122
coordination of all things sport at De La this year. We wish them both well as they leave us this year to begin their primary teaching careers. We always strive to be as successful as possible in ACC Sport every year. Even more important than success is that every student and staff member who wants to be involved in sport can make the effort and be a positive contributor. Once this happens consistently the results will take care of themselves, and DLS will become the home to more ACC pennants and trophies. Mr Peter Harte Director of Sport
