October 31st, 2022Volleyball state championships for Daylesford College teams
Daylesford College has created history by having 4 of its school teams qualify for the Victorian State Schools Championships to be held on 9th and 11th November at Dandenong Volleyball Centre. This remarkable achievement means that each team is in the top 8 Victorian school teams in Victoria.
Daylesford Volleyball Association and Daylesford College head coach Colin Priest said the teams were aiming to be Victorian State Champions in at least 1 of these divisions. More intense training and game simulation has already commenced a day after winning the Greater Western Championships at Horsham on 27th October.
To qualify just to reach the Greater Western Championships, Daylesford teams had to win the Eureka Championships (Ballarat Regional Competition) which was held at the ARC on 17th and 30th August. The 4 teams to qualify for the State Championships are Year 7 Girls team, Year 7 Boys team, Year 8 Girls team and the Year 8 Boys team. This remarkable achievement resulted from dedicated Volleyball programs conducted at both the Daylesford College and Daylesford Primary Schools over the last few years. The College program starts with PE classes for all the year 7 and 8 classes and then lunch time training for the school teams and also Volleyball team competition on Monday nights at 6 pm at the Daylesford Volleyball Association competitions at the ARC. Many of the players have also played in junior tournaments throughout the State on weekends.
The Greater Western Championship wins had the year 7 girls winning a close game against Holy Trinity College 2 sets to 1 and then winning against Kings College 2 sets love.
The year 7 boys won against both Kings College and Holy Trinity College 2 sets to 0 The year 8 girls beat both Horsham College and Edenhope College 2 set to 0.
The year 8 boys defeated Kings College and Edenhope College 2 sets to 0 and then played the other undefeated school Holy Trinity College to decide who played at the State Championships.
The first set belonged to Holy Trinity College who dominated play. The seconded set saw Daylesford fight back to win the set with match hinging on the final set with the first team to reach 15 points.
Holy Trinity playing top level volleyball surged to a 4 to 0 lead with the game looking over. Daylesford then started to play team volleyball and finally regaining some control to sneak home in a tense game 15 points 13 in the final set. Both cheer squads lifted the roof off the stadium with the boys team coaches, senior students Scout and Banjo Kinnear and Quinn Lefevre surviving the tensions of competition coaching. The professional coaching of school teachers Daryl Nettleton and Damon Gillingham ensured that both girls teams progressed to the Victorian State Championships.
Earlier this year the Senior Girls and Intermediate Boys also played at the State Championships.
An outstanding achievement for a small country school to have 6 teams in the top 8 school teams in Victoria. An achievement that would not have come about without the building of the ARC community centre and the Daylesford Volleyball Association competitions on Monday nights.
Words: Colin Priest – Victorian State Coach
