Volleyball - Junior Schools Cup

Recently eight Year 7 boys competed in the Queensland Junior Schools Cup tournament. The event is held across various venues on the Gold Coast, including the 2018 Commonwealth Games facilities at Coomera and Carrara.

Junior Schools Cup is an annual volleyball festival targeted at Year 7 and 8 high school students and caters to approximately 2,000 athletes of all skill levels who competed over three days. Playing in the Year 7 Boys Division 2 competition the boys started training for the competition in early August and with limited prior volleyball experience. As the tournament grew near the boys started to gel together and develop their individual volleyball skills as well as their team strategy.

On the first day of the tournament the boys played Redlands College and Kelvin Grove and with some great serving from Carlito Lamont and Mason Richards they were able to come away with two victories.

On day two the boys needed to secure a win against Toowoomba Grammar to ensure that they finished on top of their pool and a birth straight into the semi-finals. With some great setting from Lachie Mathieson and Jed Collofello they boys pulled out the victory and finished on top of Pool B.

On the final day the boys needed to beat Canterbury College to advance to the gold medal match. With outstanding attacking at the net by Raiden Kyaw and Ethan Grocott and inspiring defence from Mandi Barrios and Luke Oishi the boys managed to convincingly book a spot in the final.

In the final against Villanova the boys put in a gallant effort but fell just short securing the silver medal.

All of the boys showed fantastic Spartan spirit with coaches from opposition teams commenting on how well the boys supported each other on court with their encouragement and positive attitude. I am super proud of you all.

A massive thank you for the support from all of the families involved over the course of the journey. A special thank you to Eli Mathieson who went above and beyond to support the team at trainings and over the tournament weekend. And last but not least to Mrs Grocott for her work as assistant coach, team manager and support crew, we couldn’t do it without you.