Thomas Wright trains with the Oxley College Basketball Academy

The Kilsyth Cobra’s Representative Basketball team recently held their presentation night, awarding the best players from each of their teams.  Regan Grimwood received the Most Valuable Player Award and Michael Baldwin received the Coach’s Award.  Both boys played in the 18.3 team as bottom age players.

From the 16.1 team Thomas Wright won the Most Valuable Player and Jamie Cubitt received the Coach’s Award.  Each of these boys are Oxley College students and members of the Oxley College Basketball Academy. These are fantastic awards to be awarded and represent many, many hours of hard work, admirable character and commitment. Congratulations boys!

A number of Oxley College Junior School students recently participated in the Zone and Regional Athletics Championship at the Bill Steward Athletics Track in East Burwood. On a cold, windy, wet day Oxley College students produced some outstanding results. The top performer for Oxley College was Year Five student Ella Van De Velde who placed 2nd in the 800m and 1500m at the regional level and has qualified for the Victorian Primary Schools State Athletics Championships in both events. Fellow Year Five student Caleb Taylor also had an outstanding day placing 10th in the regional final of the 1500m and 6th in the regional final of the 800m. Mathew Smith in Year Four qualified for the regional final in the hurdles and Ben Papas and Jacob Bell both finished third at the zone level for their respective events.

OXLEY PLAYS GRANDLY DURING FINALS TO END WINTER EISM SEASON

The business end of our winter EISM seasons for both Year 8/9 and Senior competitions has come to a close.  Oxley was well represented, with several teams in grand finals on the 25th and 26th August.  Congratulations to all teams who participated this season, especially those who made grand finals.  Oxley won the Year 8/9 Basketball Final and received a draw in the Hockey Final, runners up in Senior Boys and Girls Basketball and Boys Table Tennis as well as Year 8/9 Girls Netball.

The Senior Boys and Girls basketball and Boys Table Tennis finished the season on top of the Central division / Southern Conference ladder, going on to
play against the top school of the Northern Conference in the finals.  The three teams were awarded runners up, facing tough opposition in their grand final.  Both basketball teams were defeated by Knox and Huntingtower won the table tennis.

Our best players, each receiving a medal from opposition coaches, were Regan Grimwood and Emily Ridgewell (Basketball) and Patrick Biedrycki.
Oxley hosted the Senior Boys and Girls Table Tennis finals and Girls Netball.  We have had the privilege of hosting many grand finals across a variety of sports in the short time we’ve been in the EISM sporting competition, our new stadium facilities the ideal venue.

Oxley had an impressive 4 out of 8 teams in the years 8/9 competition make grand finals: Boys Basketball and Girls Hockey, Netball and Basketball, with the other four teams coming second or third.  At both Senior and 8/9 level it was a great improvement on last years winter season results.

At the conclusion of the grand finals on the 27th August, Girls Hockey were joint premiers with Knox (after drawing 1 – 1 after regulation and over time), Boys Basketball premiers defeating Knox 21 – 18 and Girls Netball had an agonising one point loss to Knox in the netball.  It was a particularly great afternoon as we hosted both the Boys Basketball and Netball finals.  Both were played on neighbouring courts with many Oxley students cheering  on the teams with banners, music and streamers.  The Oxley mascot bear treated the crowd to an amusing slam dunk display off the mini trampoline at half time.  Best players, awarded a medal from other opposition coaches were Olivia Aing (Hockey), Corey Jeffs (Basketball) and Erin Prout (Netball).

The Girls Year 8/9 Basketball grand final has been postponed until 10th September, good luck to coach Moore and captain Paige Tomlins leading the team!  Hopefully they will bring home our 3rd winter premier pennant of the year and our fourth overall after Senior Boys Cricket won earlier in the year.

Students at Oxley College were excited today to receive a visit from the Melbourne Storm NRL club as they used our main school oval as a training ground.  The team are currently staying at Balgownie Estate in the Yarra Valley on a “two-day leadership and bonding camp” and sought a suitable football ground, unaffected by the drought conditions on which to train.  “The playing surface is great here,” Captain Cameron Smith said.  “I would have loved to have come here when I was a kid!”

Oxley students were enthralled during recess and lunch time as Storm players practiced their training drills, with VCE Physical Education classes taking the opportunity to observe a professional elite sports team in action.  Storm’s Team Manager took time out to address classes with some of their training principles and how the Storm make use of GPS technology as a part of their training regime.  He also spent a generous amount of time responding to their well considered questions.  At the conclusion of today’s workout, players were more than obliging to remain behind and personally sign team posters, with many students also bringing tops, footballs and flags from home to have autographed.  Dallas Johnson was heard saying, “this would have to be one of the politest schools I’ve ever been to.”

Players will have an afternoon to rest before returning to Oxley again tomorrow morning for another intense session.   This coming weekend Storm play St. George, which is set to test the team in their lead up to finals, after a convincing win over the Sharks this weekend (30-10).  We hope the vigorous training preparation on our oval will help Storm over the line! GO STORM!

Oxley College looks to improve in a run on the EISM Cross Country Championship

The Oxley College Senior School recently ran their Inter House Cross Country Competition which launched the cross country season for the Senior School.  Following this, a training squad of 122 students has now been named in preparation for the EISM Cross Country Championship.

“Inclusion in this team is an excellent achievement and the inter-school team provides students with the experience of competing against teams from 21 other schools,” said Mr Gavin Fox, Head of Senior School Sport.  “Potentially, there could be up to 220 runners in every age group race!”  Schools receive points according to the places gained by their runners in each age group, and so every runner on the team has an important role to play in placing the school in the events.

On the boy’s side, Head Coach Mr Michael Bond will look to guide his team to a first place victory. “I expect anyone who is wearing the uniform to perform their best,” said Mr Bond.  The team will have a good twelve weeks of training to prepare for this race. Oxley College’s boy’s cross country team took second place last year with Travis Bail winning his individual race and leading the Under 15 Boys to an age group section victory.

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Final scores: Oxley 5/159, Kingswood, 5/150.

The Oxley College Senior Cricket Team are EISM Premiers in 2009. For the second year in a row, Oxley defeated Kingswood College to secure back to back premierships in our first two years in this competition.

The Grand Final was once again an arm wrestle to the end. Having won the toss, we decided to bat, hoping that our ever reliable openers, Daniel Rogers and Nathanael Hrabe would get us off to a flying start. Up until this game, Captain, Daniel Rogers had made 249 runs and not once lost his wicket. You guessed it. Having scored 26 off 25 balls, he tried to hit a second successive 6, mistimed it and was caught. Fortunately, Nathanael Hrabe stepped up to the challenge and ended up with a magnificent 53 retired from 52 balls, including 2 sixes and 5 fours. We ended up scoring 5/159 from our 25 overs with significant contributions from Jake Smith with 30 from 19 balls and Marcus Bree with 17 n.o. from 12 balls.

Kingswood started strongly and after 14 overs were 0/74 and with all wickets in hand were looking strong. We were never going to bowl them out so containment became our number one aim. Read the rest of this entry »

Information for parents regarding the Year 7 – 12 Inter House Swimming Sports.

Download: Year 7-12 Swimming 2009: Program of events.pdf

Parents and guardians of competing students are most welcome to attend.