GWSC wins ‘SSV’ Spirit of Sport Award….
We would like to congratulate our GWSC ‘Year 7 Girls’ Softball team on taking out 3rd Place at the 2025 ‘School Sport Victoria’ Softball State Championships. They were also presented with our first ever ‘SSV’ Spirit of Sport Award, acknowledging their outstanding efforts both on and off the diamond.
This is the first time that a sporting team from our college has won this prestigious award which recognises teams with a positive attitude and love of sport, who continually exhibit respect, integrity, leadership and inclusion both on and off the playing arena. What an incredible achievement from our youngest softball side in the school, especially when one considers how this team started out all the way back in February this year……
When Mr Liacos and Mr Robinson ran the first try-out session for Year 7 Girls Softball in Term 1, we were expecting around twenty girls to attend and show us their skills on the dusty diamond…..We only had three turn up….Special shout-out to our ‘OG’ trio of Ella, Millie & Sadie……So, we had to get the word out on the bush telegraph and source some more softballer’s swiftly…..I could almost hear a voice whispering to me on the Oval, ‘Build it and they will come’…..I thought the voice was talking about the newest set of portables, but it kept going whenever Mr Liacos and I spoke about softball…..That was it, we needed a softball diamond marked out on our oval (kinda kidney shaped now), so I got out our line marker, a 20m tape measure and put my mathematical capabilities to the test…..so many angles!
Before you knew it, we had a softball diamond marked out on the oval and over 30 girls wanting to try-out for our Year 7 Girls Softball Team…..You could sense something special was ahead for this group of determined young women. Within two weeks, we had also secured the services of five amazing student coaches (Bella, Ushma, Elsie, Louisa and Charlotte) who then set-about selecting a dozen Year 7 girls to represent GWSC in softball. Once we had our team of twelve, we then had to get to work on the training track……
We had two solid training sessions as a team in the lead up to the Waverley Division Softball Championships, where we played three terrific games for two comfortable wins against Highvale and Mount Waverley, before a narrow one run loss to Vermont. This eventuated in a three-way tie for first, as Mount Waverley had beaten Vermont earlier in the day. Luckily our two victories were both sizeable, providing our team with the highest percentage and safe passage through to the ‘SSV’ Eastern Metropolitan Region Softball Championships, which we soon discovered were being contested in Term 4……Cue an almost 7 month stretch and shutdown of softball in between the Division and Region carnivals……
Fast forward to the end of Term 3 and our Year 7 Girls softballer’s got back out on the training track to prepare for Regionals. We were also fortunate to have one of our GWSC parents, Mrs Grace Lee (the team gave her the nickname ‘Amazing’, which is very apt), volunteer her time and expertise to help guide our Year 7 softballer’s through a series of training sessions in the lead up to Regionals. Our girls were so fortunate to have this experience, as Grace not only taught them about how to improve their softball skills, but also how to actively support one another and play positive, powerful softball as a team!
On the 28th of October, 2025 we jumped on the Quince’s bus and headed out to Knox for the ‘SSV’ Eastern Metropolitan Region Softball Championship. We started slowly against Balwyn High School, clawing our way back to within two runs at the bottom of the fifth innings. Unfortunately, we did not have sufficient time to close out another innings, so the game was called at this point in time. We then moved onto a different diamond to take on Brentwood Secondary College, who had multiple state representative players in their ranks. Our Glenny girls played some inspired softball to be in the lead at the bottom of the 3rd innings, before narrowly going down again by 2 runs. In our third and final pool game, we easily accounted for East Doncaster Secondary College, but the damage had already been done…..We finished the region tournament in 3rd place and looked to have missed out on qualifying for the State Finals…..
Then my phone rang…..at around 3:55pm on Monday the 10th of November, 2025…It was the ‘SSV’ State Championships Co-ordinator and he had some great news for our team…..A fellow softball side from one of the country regions had unfortunately been forced to withdraw from the State Championships and there was a spare spot in the draw that needed to be filled. Based on our fine showing at Regionals, we were offered the opportunity to play in the ‘SSV’ Year 7 Girls Softball State Championships…. “When are the State Titles?” I enquired…. “This Thursday” came the reply…..So, the clock was ticking on a very tight turn-around and we had to get moving faster than someone stealing home plate…..Massive thanks to all of the parents/guardians of our Year 7 Girls Softball players and student coaches, who kindly read my reminder messages and completed the required Compass permission so their daughters’ could either play or coach at the State Softball Championships in just three more days. We even managed to sneak in a final training session before States, but we had to run it indoors in our Gym as the heavens decided to open that day and shower our school with thousands of sizeable hail stones in between torrential downpours of rain……
We now skip forward to the day of the State Softball Championships…..Thursday the 13th of November, 2025…..Luckily the State Championships were being played at the Waverley Softball Centre, only a ten minute bus ride from Glenny…..As you would expect, we were the first team to arrive at the venue and start our warm-up in preparation for our Round 1 pool game against Gladstone Park Secondary College. Our fielding was fantastic in this first hit out, with some classic catches being taken! Our batting line up then got the job done, securing a magnificent 7 run victory for our team! We then moved diamonds to play Balwyn High School, who proved to be a formidable opponent once again. Although we battled hard, Balwyn were just that little bit cleaner in the field and tactical with their base running and hitting, going on to win the encounter by 5 runs. This loss hurt our team, but we didn’t have time to dwell in the dugout as we had to move diamonds again for our final pool match against Frankston High School. Both teams attacked the game with great gusto, however our Year 7 GWSC Girls took the honours 22 to 15. In the final match of the pool, Gladstone Park had to upset Balwyn to give us any chance of moving through to the State Grand Final. Alas, it was not meant to be, with Balwyn moving into the State Grand Final against Bass Coast College, who were the eventual State Champions!
Whilst moving into a comfortable position to watch some of the Grand Final, our group was approached by a member of ‘School Sport Victoria’. He said that he had a surprise for our team, which generated lots of excitement amongst our girls. Shortly after, we were presented with the ‘School Sport Victoria’ Spirit of Sport Award in recognition of our teams’ positive attitude and love of sport, continual exhibition of respect, integrity, leadership and inclusion both on and off the playing arena. This is the first time that our college have won this prestigious award, which is a huge honour for our Year 7 Girls Softball team and testament to the values and lessons they have learnt throughout this entire season of softball from their coaches Mrs Grace Lee, Mr Jim Liacos and Mr Mark Robinson.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our coaches (parent/staff/student) who kindly volunteered their time and efforts to help guide our Year 7 Girls Softballer’s this year, both at training and also during the Waverley Division, Eastern Metropolitan Region and State Championships. Kudos also to all twelve of our Year 7 Girls softballer’s who gave their absolute all for this team, playing as one #SoftballStrong squad! You were all so attentive, respectful and eager to learn whilst at training, developing so much as individuals and as a team within such a short space of time. At all three championships this year you supported one another so very well, played hard but fair, respected everyone involved in the game, whilst representing yourselves, your families and our college community with great distinction. We can’t wait to watch these powerful and determined young women develop further as a team and continue improving their softball skills in the years to come.
#SoftballStrong!
Kind Regards,
Mr Mark Robinson.
Glen Waverley Secondary College