Sports Roundup by Head of Sports Mr Sean Connolly

It has been a busy and exciting start to the Michaelmas term in regards to a Secondary Sport.  We are pleased to see so many of our students eagerly participating in the variety of sports that are offered on a weekly basis.  Many of them have also competed in fixtures and events and as a newcomer to the BSC community, it has been wonderful for me to witness the passion, energy and ability of our BSC Lions.

It is important to remember why sport is an integral part of our school; as well as the physical health benefits, it also provides positive values and ‘life skills’ for our students.  Each fixture and tournament attended this term, the message has been clear, winning isn’t everything, but trying your hardest to win is.  Being humble in victory, accepting defeat graciously and showing respect to all, is something our BSC Lions understand and strive for each time they represent themselves and the school.

SUMMARY OF HIGHLIGHTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Recently, our teams participated in the COMBOS Futsal tournaments, it started with the Year 10-13 boys and girls teams. Each team represented the school excellently demonstrating those values that are paramount to our school culture.  Our girls A team advanced all the way to the final, narrowly losing to Overseas School 1-0.  They gave every ounce of energy and were exhausted at the final whistle, for this I applaud them. 

The Year 7-9 boys and girls team played some fantastic Futsal; both A teams dominated the group stages and comfortably progressed to the finals.  The girls had a very close encounter and in fact, the result was decided by a penalty shoot-out and fortunately, our girls demonstrated the composure to win the shoot-out and become 2022 COMBOS FUTSAL CHAMPIONS.  The boys played attacking football and proved too strong for Stafford School; they managed to win the final 3-0, although this was a fantastic victory, the most pleasing aspects were, demonstrating the courage to play exciting football and showing great respect to their opposition after the final.

Our U17 boys Cricket team have shown what a talented side they are and to this point, they remain undefeated in both, friendlies and competitive matches. There have been some great individual performances but as a team, they pull together and always represent themselves in a professional manner.  They have comfortably progressed to the quarter finals of the Inter International Cricket Championships (TISSL) producing some fantastic performances.  In the match versus AIS, the BSC Lions registered the highest total of 259 run in in just 23 overs.  They also recorded the highest winning margin of 198 runs. It will take a strong team to stop their momentum, we wish them the best of luck.

Our swimmers have participated in two Novices Swimming Galas so far, as well as our own Inter-house completion.  From those Novices events we had four secondary school swimmers that achieved the qualification time which, now allows them to swim in National events; this is a wonderful achievement and testament to their hard work in the pool. Congratulations to those swimmers. After Half-term, our swimming community will look forward to watching our BSC swimmers at the Inter International Swim Meet.

Our Interhouse Sports Competitions this term, basketball and swimming highlighted how passionate, competitive and supportive our students are. As well as demonstrating the talents of our students, both events encapsulated our school spirit and togetherness, this is of course one of the main objectives. The atmosphere for both events was incredible and for me, it was great to see some students giving their all to gain points for their house even though, they had not had much exposure to basketball or swimming, this is truly commendable.

In summary, it has been a positive start to the term, after the Half-term break we have more TISSL, COMBOS and other fixtures and tournaments to attend.  Our students are so passionate, motivated and involved in developing school sport and I know this will continue.  We will continue to update individual sporting achievements as well as the achievements of our BSC Lions Teams throughout the term.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the BSC community for all their continued support with school sport and I wish you all an enjoyable break.

Sean Connolly

Director of Sport.