Not for a long time has St Augustine’s Sport had such a busy and active holiday period. Both Football codes trained and played games in the holidays and it was great to see the boys all enjoying their sport at fields around the Northern Beaches, Queens Park and Riverview. Thank you to the students, parents and especially staff, who took time out of their own holidays to ensure the boys got an opportunity to run around. The attitude and sportsmanship of the students, as well as the uniform, was extremely impressive and bodes well for a great term of sport.
I understand that for parents it is a very interesting time with the No Spectator rule in place however, we really appreciate you adhering to this for this weekend and possibly next. We are doing everything we can to make this as easy as possible however it is important to remember that our main objective is to get the boys playing. This weekend the St Augustine’s officials at Rugby will be trialling a SMS sign in method and if it goes well, we will hopefully have spectators return in Week 3.
We have some very exciting news in the Strength and Conditioning space with Nathan Parnham joining the sports team this term. This has been a restructuring of the Gymnasium/Weights room supervision team, and Nathan’s focus will be on the athletic development of all students from Years 5-12. Nathan has come here from the Rugby Australia Women’s 7s program. He has a deep passion for the development age group having previously created successful athletic development programs at Westfield Sports High School and Newington College. Nathan is extremely passionate about setting our future generations up for success, not only in sport but in life, by empowering them to make healthy life choices.
As part of this process, Nathan will be rolling out some exciting initiatives in the coming school terms to keep students engaged and challenged throughout their time at St Augustine’s. Term 4 will see us begin an Athletic Development program for Years 5 and 6 and Years 7 and 8. Very exciting!! Whether it’s to get a little more active, boost self-esteem, or enhance their sporting prowess, he is here to assist and ensure their success.
For further insights on frequently asked questions within the youth sporting space, Nathan has also recently set up a free online resource for parents to help navigate their way through youth sport www.thesportingparent.com.au. Feel free to subscribe to his blog, I have found it informative and feel it may be extremely useful for parents and students alike.
Most activities will be recommencing this week and next. Please make sure that you are keeping an eye on Team App, emails from TICs and that the boys are checking their Direqt Messages to ensure our communication stays strong for all our Sports and Co-Curricular activities.
Jonathan Harvey
Assistant Principal – Sport & Co-Curricular