St Ives Football Tour

Before departing for our official tour to the Central Coast, we played against a physical and skilful academy based in Lindfield. Despite the lack of training sessions due to the rain and school break, we won the game and had a great start to the week.

On day two, we travelled to the Central Coast, to start our official tour. Over the next three days, we played against various local teams, winning some, but losing some as well. We scored some great goals, including some awesome shots from James Callagher and captain Charlie Oates. Oscar Zylberberg, Matthew D’Cruz, Leon Goh, Kaiyan Lean, and William Wang made some terrific runs. Cristian Marsh, Michael Song, Angus Purtell, and Nathan Arav were fantastic defenders and Quade Holland was an excellent goalie – only conceding four goals in the whole week! Even though the weather wasn’t favourable, we played on, and team spirit was high.

Apart from playing the matches, we also enjoyed many exciting activities. We went to the Tree Tops Adventure Park where we were flying with birds, using the zip lines amongst the tree canopies! We also went to the Australian Reptile Park, and we enjoyed a laser tag battle against our teachers who annihilated us. Then we went go-karting and tenpin bowling. Apart from a few crashes in go-karting, everyone enjoyed the outing and had fun.

Our next stop was Tamworth where the National Primary Games were held. Everybody was refreshed and ready for the games. Unfortunately, when we reached Tamworth, some of our players were unfit to play, which meant we had no substitutes! We played a total of five games, three in the morning and two in the afternoon. Even though we had no subs, we managed to win all five games! What a fantastic achievement! Charlie made a great team captain as he gave us a little pep talk to lighten up our team spirit before each match – we were so eager to win. All eleven of us played with strong determination and stamina.

Throughout the trip, our Sportsmasters were so encouraging, they made us believe that we could do it. Mr Gyngell had arranged our playing kit with our names and initials on them, so that we looked like professional footballers on the field.

Thank you so much to Mr Gyngell and all the Sportsmasters for giving us an unforgettable experience!