Annual Sports Presentation

School Sports Presentations 

Each year Hills Grammar hosts its Annual Sports Presentation to recognise the achievements of students in our Club Sports as well as at Representative Level. The Annual Sport Presentation is a major event on the school calendar and is attended by students, staff and the parent community. Each year Hills Grammar invites an elite sportsperson to join us at our celebration and speak with our students about their journey. Past guest speakers have included: 

• Abbey McCulloch – NSW Swifts Netball 
• Alex Tobin – Australian Footballer 
• Michelle Jenneke – Australian Hurdler 
• Ben Knight – Sydney Kings and Australian Boomers Basketball Player

Excerpt from Opening Address at 2020 Annual Sports Presentation: 

Welcome to the 2020 Virtual Annual Sports Presentation.

2020 had promised so much after such a successful few years in the sporting arena for all of our Hills Grammar teams across both the Junior and Senior school. However; like all schools, our momentum was seriously halted due to Covid–19.

Where possible we amended the program and it was pleasing to still be able to allow our students to participate in all three major carnivals, albeit in a limited or modified capacity. We also had teams participating towards the end of year in the local Hills Zone primary and secondary competitions. Our Hills Grammar Sport clubs were able to get in a full season of netball and football and basketball has started its season and is running at normal capacity.

Whilst things were halted we are now on the way back to regaining that momentum from last year and it is hoped that all of our students will have a renewed enthusiasm for 2021. Hopefully the international borders also open up and our postponed overseas tour to Fiji can go ahead next year.

Our highlights for the 2020 year need to stem right back to December 2019, where our Under 15 boys volleyball team competed at the National Volleyball championships. This tournament happens in the week after all other students have broken up for the year. It is a strenuous week with up to three games each day, culminating in finals on the weekend. The boys tested themselves in Division 1 and in an amazing show of fightback qualified for the final against one of the very large Queensland schools. With a home crowd advantage for their opponents it proved to be test of mental and physical strength, and very pleasingly the boys won in three sets to take the Gold Medal, a first for Hills Grammar at this level. 

Congratulations to all students and staff who were involved in our club sport this year, it was a huge shift for everyone involved to comply with Covid- 19  protocols for training and matches and the entire community including parents are to be commended for their approach to the situation knowing that it was for the benefit of the kids being able to participate and enjoy their sport in a safe environment. Both our netball and football clubs were very close to playing a full season of matches and we had some excellent results in both clubs. Our under 17 netball team went through the season undefeated on the back of last seasons premiership and our under 14 boys football team qualified for the grand final, only narrowly going down 2-0.

The Football club continues to develop at the grass roots level with our T3 program growing in numbers and a large proportion of the club now involved in the summer program as well. Our T3 development teams have been competitive in higher divisions of the local competition and it is inevitable that we will start to see some of these students go on to higher representation in years to come.

Our basketball club has been able to start up for the 2021 summer season and after all finals were cut short last summer season, it is hoped that we can see all teams get a full season, including some finals appearances, at the end of Term 1 next year.

In Term 1 this year our Intermediate touch football girls entered the Barker Invitational competition, and after some indifferent results to start the competition the girls then committed to training and started to get some excellent results. This led to a grand final appearance against Mt St Benedict’s and our girls were victorious to take out the title. This group of girls are really improving and are now playing in the HZSA school competition.

Our touch football program continues to grow and we have now established the Hills Grammar Touch Football Academy which is being coordinated by our own Mr Good, current Australian Touch Football Men’s Team captain. Having his expertise available to our students is a huge advantage and any students interested in Touch football are strongly encouraged to join the program next year.

The Hills Zone competitions for both our primary and senior teams is providing a great opportunity for a number of our students. We have had to run trials for all of these teams and it has resulted in all of our teams being very competitive in football, touch, basketball and Futsal. It is hoped that in the coming weeks a few of our teams can finish off 2020 with final appearances.

We look forward to seeing sport return to normal next year and being able to provide a much wider range of opportunities than what we did this year. Please sit back and enjoy the 2020 Virtual Annual Sports Presentation.

Tristan Jones – Head of Sport Pre K-12