Stanmore Playground football and beyond It was a fantastic season for Newington football teams, with the 2nds winning the Premiership with six wins and one draw and the Plate with five wins. The 1sts finished second in the Premiership this year, behind Riverview. There were several seismic shifts in the program this year. A new Football Playground initiative saw our new rebounders, goal-shots, quicksters and football tennis apparatus laid out for the boys to enjoy fun football activities at lunchtime. A new Strength and Conditioning program was introduced for Year 8s, along with a new Skills Development program focused on individual technical skill acquisition. We also recruited many new highly Nicholas Atkinson playing for the Premiership-winning 2nds. Photo: Jared Leibowitz (ON 2013). qualified UEFA Pro, A, B and C coaches The Year 8 Football Tour of Japan was a Marinos and FC Tokyo coaches. and they played a pivotal role in a debut real highlight of the year. Twenty-two of Lindfield Football program, as well as This season the Senior squad also our players were wowed by the culture of playedsome blistering football in the maintaining the quality of a very Shizuoka, the brilliance of the young enjoyable Wyvern program. Japanese footballers they met, the Interstate Boys Coalition Football Cup Newington’s teams had excellent results miscellany of taiko drumming, soba at Canberra Grammar School and had overall, averaging over 60 per cent win making and calligraphy, and the joy of four players selected on the Team of rate. The 16A and 16B teams were cooking okonomiyaki, as well as the the Week. particularly impressive with their attitude array of coaching styles from the Mr Brian McCarthy and dedication this season. Japanese FA, S-Pulse, Yokohama Director of Football New support group for volleyball The volleyball team’s numbers are set match during the final round of the Dale Schlaphoff, Linus Griziotis, growing year-on-year and this season season. Individual players who Nicholas Michael, Jack Croll, Arky Wild, saw several innovations. demonstrated great character and spirit Angus Ole and William Ioannou. An optional morning training session throughout the season include Zac Mr Michael Ha was introduced, led by captain James Goodhand, Tobias Walsh, Ross Aliferis, Director of Volleyball Knight. The session was open to players at all levels and was extremely well attended. This season we also introduced an extra senior team and formed a volleyball P&F support group. This support group will raise funds to support our boys as they become lifelong learners – whether it be by offsetting the cost of coaching or umpiring courses or building a bridge between school and external clubs and associations. Highlights this season included our 1st team winning silver at the NSW Schools Cup, our 4th Black team only dropping one game during the season, our 2nd and 3rd teams finishing 2nd in the GPS competition, and our 15B team, with all Newington’s 3rd Volleyball team deep in the middle of a rally on Back to Newington Day. new players, winning their first straight Photo: Jared Leibowitz (ON 2013). GRATITUDE | NEWS SPRING 2018| 23