After months of lunch time training and knocking other schools out of the competition, our boys’ netball team earned the right to defend our state title in the final series at Netball SA Stadium.

The series started with the top four South Australian schools competing in a round robin tournament to decide which two teams would play in the grand final.

We won our first game comfortably, defeating Endeavour by 9 goals, thanks to Harry and Jackson, our goal-scoring machines.

Our second match was against St Francis de Sales, who we defeated in last year’s grand final. We knew they were going to be hungry to even the score. What we didn’t know is that they were sending giants to beat us. They had the five tallest players on the court and picked off anything in the air. Even so, our boys only lost the match by 3 goals, with Luke, Lucas, Matthew, Samuel, and Hunter working tirelessly through the middle of the court.

Our third match was against Trinity College. We needed to beat them to finish in the top two and play in the grand final. We won that game easily, by 7 goals, thanks to our amazing defensive duo – Charlie and Alex.

The grand final was a replay of the last year’s grand final – Coromandel Valley versus St Francis de Sales. The two teams switched leads many times throughout the match, but at three quarter time we found ourselves 3 goals down. After the break the boys came out and played their brilliant best. They adapted their game and managed to get within a goal, with about 15 seconds remaining, but St Francis had the centre pass. We managed to intercept the ball, get it down to our goals and score, only 2 seconds before the final whistle! The rules for the Statewide Schools competition state that, in the case of two teams drawing at full time in the grand final, both teams are awarded joint winners (that’s okay, we don’t mind sharing). So, for Coromandel Valley, that means that we are back-to-back state champions! Now we look forward to next year, to see if we can make it a hat-trick!

A big thanks to Mrs Hiser, who assisted with coaching, and the girls who helped provide a team for the boys to practise against over many lunch times. Thanks also to all the parents who have supported the team at matches. I’m very proud of this team for how hard they’ve worked, their good sportsmanship and what they have achieved. Well done champs!

The players: Hunter (C), Matthew (VC), Charlie, Alex, Jackson, Harry, Samuel, Luke and Lucas.

Mr De Lyster

PE Teacher