Director of Sport and Co-curricular

I write this article with a great deal of satisfaction to talk about how proud Santa students are of representing the school and playing fairly, leaving their hearts on the court and field.

This past weekend we had six teams playing in the IGSA Sport semi-finals: SAN01 and SAN02 basketball, SAN01, SAN03 and SAN05 Football (Soccer) and SAN01 Hockey.

I had the opportunity to watch the three Football matches here at Santa and witnessed our students playing graciously, disputing every single ball and leaving all in the field.

The reports from Basketball and Hockey were along the same lines, which makes me feel great about my role at the College and how much support we get from our community.

I would like to congratulate all students who took the courts and fields on Saturday highlighting SAN02 Basketball and SAN03 Football who are playing Grand Finals this coming weekend.

I would like to give a big shout out to our five Badminton teams (Years 6-11) who played the Meriden Invitational Badminton Competition till Friday last week when all teams earned the right to play the final round.

I also would like to acknowledge and congratulate SAN01 Chess team for making it to the finals of the IGSA Chess Challenge to be played at Meriden this coming Friday. The students topped their pool and are now looking forward to playing the matches that may lead them to the shield.

The following students have been selected to represent NSW (NSW Phoenix) at the Australian Youth Volleyball Championships this week and next week in Bendigo.

Please see photo below:

This term was definitely a busy one but the rewards and the nurturing of our sense of community leading to great performances is to be highlighted and makes us all realise that all the efforts put into sport facilitation at Santa bring a huge reward when we see our students achieving success and engaging with an active lifestyle.

Representative and Saturday Sport and Co-curricular Activities

Individual Students’ Achievements

Alessandra Ronsisvalle – NSWPSSA Football

The following students represented CGSSSA at the NSWCCC Athletics Carnival on Monday 16 September:

Caitilin Brennan (Year 11)
Ava Cetnic (Year 7)
Sophie Hickey (Year 8)
Annika Ingwersen (Year 12)
Olynda Lebeau (Year 10)
Amelie Mckee (Year 9)
Mira Nguyen (Year 9)
Lily Stewart (Year 12)

We had some outstanding performances and the highlights of the day were:

Caitilin Brennan (Year 11) – 4th in the 400m.
Annika Ingwersen (Year 12) – 3rd  in the 1500m race.
Ava Cetnic (Year 7) – 1st 80m Hurdles,1st High Jump, 4th Long Jump.
Lily Stewart (Year 12) 1st – 100m Hurdles and 1st Long Jump.

Reminders:

Registrations are still open for Co-curricular Sport/Dance and Fitness Based Clubs in Term 4.

Please register via the College App. Click on the Sport Registration button, this will take you to the Calendar.Click Activity Selection on the top right to select the required registration.

The offers are: Athletics, Fencing, FitClub, Mandarin, Badminton, Boxing, Swim Club and Recreational Dance.

The Recreational Dance Club Term 4 (Years K-8) commences Week 2 Term 4, register your child now via the Parent Portal. This is a fun club for students of all dance abilities to learn dance in an inclusive environment with their friends.

Luiz Ramalho
Director of Sport and Co-curricular Activities

Representative Dance

The SSC Representative Dance program has truly shone this year and that is a testimony to our incredible and talented dancers, our amazing and knowledgeable Dance coaches, and of course our wonderful supportive Dance families. Each year, mine, the Dance coaches and the Sport department’s goal, is to continue to grow the program in both quantity and quality. This year we had 112 dancers part of the program which was a huge achievement. We had a total of eight teams competing across Years 1 to 12, including our new Years 7-9 Jazz Team. As a squad, we competed at seven eisteddfods in 2024, at which we were highly competitive. Altogether, our teams competed 42 times collectively and out of these 42 times, placed 35 times! This is an amazing achievement for our dancers and we couldn’t be more proud, not only of their placings, but the way they represented the College by showing great teamwork, commitment and enthusiasm. This brings a smile to my face and gives the coaches and me the passion to continue to do what we do.

On Monday 16 September, we celebrated our Dance community and the dancers’ achievements at our annual awards breakfast. This was a beautiful celebration to recognise our dancers, the coaches, families and the support of the Sports Department and College. I’d also like to recognise our Dedication to Dance Award Recipient for 2024, Ellise Pirto. She was awarded this incredible award as she has shown commitment to this program over numerous years, and has been an integral member and role model of her teams. We also bade farewell to one of our exceptional coaches, Sally Danagr, who has played an integral role in the development of this program over her many years here. We wish her well as she embarks on her new chapter doing exciting things in a range of areas in the Arts.

We thank all the dance community for an amazing representative dance season and look forward to another great season in 2025.

Primary Sport

Sydney Catholic Schools Stage 2 Football Gala Day

On Tuesday 27 August, students from Year 3 and Year 4 participated in the Conference 2 Football Gala Day. Held at Edwards Park, Concord, the event brought together students from various Catholic schools in the inner west area, all eager to compete and have fun. The day involved a series of friendly matches, where students demonstrated some silky Football skills, excellent teamwork and commendable sportsmanship. Congratulations to all involved.

Sydney Catholic Schools Pre-Post Athletics Championships

Congratulations to Freya Ingwersen (1500m) and Alessandra Ronsisvalle (800m and 1500m) who have qualified for the Mackillop Athletics Championships being held on Wednesday 25 September at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre. We wish them all the best as they compete against students from Catholic Schools across NSW.

Sydney Catholic Schools Oztag Championships

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to represent Santa Sabina at the Sydney Catholic Schools Oztag Championships being held at Timbrell Park, Five Dock on Tuesday 29 October. We wish the team all the best at the upcoming tournament.

Marissa Bijjani	Rafqa Chidiac	Harper Doueihi	Victoria Elias
Isla Kenniff	Elyana Lahoud	Abby Micallef	Amelia Rigon
Alessandra Ronsisvalle	Abigail Schutt	Charlotte Tarabay

Coming up in Term 4:

Wednesday 23 October – SCS Stage 3 Volleyball Gala Day- Expression of interest OPEN

Tuesday 29 October – SCS Stage 3 Oztag Championships

Friday 29 November – K-2 Splash and Dash Swimming Carnival

Netball update

It is time to reflect on the season that was and to thank and congratulate our wonderful Santa Netball community.

Whilst we got off to a very wet and soggy start, the sun eventually came out allowing us to get back on court and play netball.

All 25 teams produced some amazing results that would not have been possible without the support of our Santa families, our managers and above all our fabulous coaches.  We had 18 out of 23 eligible teams make finals, with 10 progressing to the grand finals.

I would like to thank each and every player who helped and supported other Santa teams by filling in when those teams were short. Quite a few of our teams were plagued by injuries and illnesses, especially towards the end of the season and it was comforting to know that the Santa Spirit is alive and well and that the girls were willing to help out when they could. 

It should be noted that some of our teams may not have made it to finals without your help, so again, thank you.

Our 2024 Umpiring Development Program saw five students successfully complete the course, with one achieving her ERNA badge. In fact, we had five students in total achieve their ERNA badge and two were awarded their National C badge this year. We look forward to watching these students continue on their umpiring journey next year.

Please see here for photos of our grand finalists and our junior presentation.

We are looking forward to seeing you all back on court next year.

GO SANTA!

Joanne Gocher
Netball Coordinator

IPSHA

Congratulations to our IPSHA Touch Football Teams who competed this Term. Our Year 5 and 6 team developed their skills and went through the eight-week season undefeated. Our Year 3 and 4 team showed incredible energy and determination and improved with each game, winning their final match out at Kambala, against Ascham, even when they were short of players. Both teams did a fantastic job, working with a number of different coaches and we hope to see them all back next year in our IPSHA or IGSA teams.

IGSA

Congratulations to all teams who competed in the IGSA competition this term. We had some fantastic results with six of our teams competing in the Semi Finals on Saturday (2 Basketball, 3 Football and 1 Hockey). The girls all played their hardest with some very close results across both sports. Congratulations to SAN03 Football and SAN02 Basketball who have progressed to the Grand Final this Saturday. We wish you the best of luck in your final matches this coming Saturday.