Volleyball – Gold Coast Tour

The 2019 Australian Volleyball Schools Cup (AVSC), the largest school competition in Australia, will be held on the Gold Coast from the 7^th-14^th December.  The 2018 competition in Melbourne had 551 teams from 150 schools and over 6,000 participants. The AVSC will relocate to the spectacular Gold Coast in a partnership designed to enhance and grow the event.

Servite College looks to participate in this competition every two years and in 2017, our Year 7/8 and 9/10 girls’ teams represented the College with pride as they competed at this prestigious event. It was a great opportunity for them to extend their skills and play against the best volleyball schools in the country.

Servite College is again competing in this national tournament and will be taking one touring team for the 2019 competition. This team will be entered into the Year 9 Divisional Competition and will consist of Year 8 and 9 students, many of whom also toured back in 2017. Accompanying the students will be Ms Viktoria Marevic and Mr Toby Lewis in a managerial capacity and their coach Jasmine Truong will also be attending the tour.

It is with great excitement I would like to introduce to you the 2019 AVSC touring team:

• Nichola La Verde
• Rani Tsolakis
• Isabella Brazzale
• Arianna Buonocore
• Angelina Pintabona
• Thea Rooplal
• Talia Settineri
• Katarina Stevanovic

After competing in the WA Volleyball Schools Cup last week, which is a state qualifying competition to the AVSC, Thea Rooplal had the following to say about her experiences this year:

I have been playing in the Servite Volleyball Squad for 2-3 years now. As many of you may know the Year 9 team is set off to Gold Coast in December this year and I can tell you now we are all getting very excited. Throughout this year we competed in the WA Volleyball Junior League on Friday nights against Year 9 & 10 teams as well as last week’s WA Volleyball Schools Cup in A Division, all in preparation  for the Gold Coast tour.

We have put a lot of hard work and dedication into our training sessions in the past few months and our coach Jasmine Truong and Ms Marević have made it a fun and exciting environment. This season was such an exhilarating experience as many of our games were only a few points difference. I would like to personally applaud the girls for this amazing year as we have improved tremendously and have become such a close family. I hope in the years to come more students will join and have as much fun as we did this year. – Thea Rooplal (OLS5)

As we move forward with our preparations for the tour the team will be training three times a week from now until departure, with the inclusion of a holiday training schedule. The girls are very eager to hone their basic skills, solidify their game play and incorporate new formations and strategies to their already competitive playing nature. They have already donned themselves the ‘Servite Storm’ and will commence the design and creation of their banner these school holidays, which they will parade around the stadium during the Opening Ceremony which is the formal commencement of the competition each year.

Fundraising

Added to all the training and banner making the girls will be doing fundraising in order to help contribute to the cost of their airfare, accommodation, team registration and/or team uniforms. The students will start their fundraising these school holidays and we encourage our Servite Community to get behind our girls in their bid to represent our College and Volleyball on a national stage.

We will be running the Bunning Sausage Sizzle at the Innaloo store this Monday 30^th September, Queens Birthday Public Holiday!

We will be set up from 8am to 4pm, feeding the multitude of people hoping to get some work done around their home on the Public Holiday. If you’ve been thinking about completing some home or garden projects, or are simply within the area, please pop by and buy a Sausage Sizzle in support of our students.

The students will be setting up a second Bunnings Sausage Sizzle on the final Saturday of the school holidays, 12 October, this time at the Osborne Park store.

Your support of one or both of these fundraising ventures will greatly be appreciated. It is wonderful to have members of our Servite Community gather and rally around our dedicated Volleyball players; players who live our College Values. They’ve shown great courage in joining the squad, perseverance through games, a real zest for the sport and joy amidst their team mates.

Ms Viki Marevic
Teacher – Health and Physical Education