Victor Lee Allergy Awareness GPS Round

A wonderful initiative instigated by Ben Serone (11/MA) and his friends to raise awareness about the danger of Allergies took place in the final GPS Round of football on Saturday, 13 August. Through Ben, all the boys in the Opens wore blue armbands, rented out chairs for viewing and sold cold drinks and snacks to shine a light on the devastating impact of allergic reactions. Earlier this year, Victor Lee was just short of his 11th birthday when he passed away following an allergic reaction. Ben and his assistants want to highlight the scale and relevance of this potentially fatal medical condition:

• 1 in every 13 children are affected by potentially deadly food allergies
• Food allergies among children have increased by 50 per cent in the last 20 years
• Children’s food allergies cost nearly $25 billion per year

The funds raised from the day are going towards allergy research. All the Opens Teams supported the Allergy Awareness event with great dignity.

GPS Wrap Up

With so many teams performing incredibly well this year and undefeated GPS reputations to protect, the final day of action was a whirlwind as the Open 7ths among others preserved their unbeaten reputation (and No Goals Against). This was along with the following teams:

• 6th
• 7th
• 8th
• 15A
• 15C
• 14C
• 14E
• 14F
• 13A
• 13B
• 13C
• 13D
• 13E
• 13F

The 13A’s followed on from last years excellent team to once again annex the Phil Jagger Trophy with a brilliant series of performances under Head Coach, Neil Jablonski.

Year 7 Teams lead the way with an impressive array of teams. They will no doubt manifest into mouth-watering competition in the years ahead. Of particular satisfaction was the recovery of the 15As who overturned Trial losses in two of their games with wonderful tenacity and team work under Coach, Mr Maxwell.

Our 1sts and 2nds suffered the agonies and joys of football in equal measure. Our 2nds won a dramatic penalty shoot out against St Josephs to retain the GPS Seconds Plate. However having lead the Seconds Premiership throughout, our failure to win the final game saw Riverview overtake us in the final “furlong”. The 1sts also saw Shore take away the Premiership with a 1 point margin after leading the way throughout. Both our 1sts and 2nds can be justifiably proud of season best statistics as both teams heralded the best offensive and defensive records of all 8 schools.

Season Awards Dinner

The Newington College Football Association Annual Awards Dinner was a great success with all of the Year Groups and teams being recognised at the beautiful Smoking Goat restaurant in Abbotsford. Special Guest Jonathan Aspropotatamatis (ON ) was on hand to present many of the Awards, while First Team Coach Mr Justin Verco spoke eloquently as he took a trip down “memory lane” with the boys.

Seconds and 13A Coach, Neil Jablonski introduced the various Award winners in his own inimitable fashion. The NCFA Committee are to be hugely congratulated on the wonderful presentation of tables, accessories and trophies, which made the venue a sight to behold.

Special tribute was paid to all the boys in the Senior Squad, especially the departing players from Year 12.  In Captain Sam Mehmet (12/MA), goalkeeper Terry Lardis (12/MA), defenders Marco Stocca (12/LE), Sebastian Iannuzzi (12/MO), Nicholas Jackson (12/FL), Dom Siu (12/MA), midfielders Anthony Mavris (12/ME), Hassan Hammoud (12/LE), Jeremi Campese (12/MA), and strikers Connor Eldridge (12/PR), Tal Wiersma (12/PR), Connor Tran (12/JN) and Robbie Tighe (12/ME) we really had a special group of players who have contributed so much to Newington College and Wyvern for almost 11 years in some cases. Their love of football, levels of team work and commitment to improvement are benchmarks for future generations. We look forward to all the boys achieving their potential in the forthcoming exams.