MSA Baseballers in the lime light

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for our MSA Baseball program with State and National Championships and the naming of 2 of our students into an Australian squad.

Firstly congratulations are to be given to year 11 student Declan Spiers and year 9 student Jayden Kim for being named in the Baseball Australia U18 World Cup squad which will head to America in August.  They will be based at Perfect Game’s Fort Myers facility for a final selection camp.

The final team will then depart for the September 9-18 World Cup in Bradenton and Sarasota.

Jayden, Declan and our head coach Scott Meager spent a week during the term 1 holidays at the AIS in Canberra for the selection trials.

Three year 8 student baseballers Roman Coote, Oliver Bergin and Sam Land represented the Twins Charter at the National Championships in Mildura for the Intermediate league championships.  The Twins defeated Victoria’s other team at the Nationals the Southern Mariners to claim 3rd in the tournemant.  Oliver hitting a home run for the Twins in the Bronze medal match.

Meanwhile Josh Bence played for the Twins in the Senior League National Championships in Geelong.

Maribyrnong College won the Intermediate School Sport Victoria State Championships defeating Frankston High School in the final played at Cheltenham 6-0.  5 players from our baseball program Andy Land, Jayden Kim, Lauchlan Schumann, Dylan Brooks and Josh Bence were joined by Cricketers Bailey Toesland, Sam Syan and George Eaves and Volleyballer Dan Nguyen to claim their 2nd state championship in 4 years (No championships were played in 2020 and 2021).

U17 National Netball Champs

The 2022 National Netball Championship were played over the term 1 school holidays at the Hobart Netball and Sports Centre in Tasmania and MSA had 2 representatives in the U17 Victorian team.

Year 11 MSA Student Athlete’s Montaya Sardi and Charlotte Morey both played an integral part in Victoria’s efforts at the Championships helping their state get into the Grand final match against NSW.  Unfortunately though NSW won the final 38-35 to win the gold medal relegating Victoria to a silver medal.

Charlotte believes Victoria had every opportunity “During the week when we lost to NSW we lost by 20 points, so going into the Grand Final we weren’t expected to win and while the Grand Final was close all game, I feel that we didn’t play bad but NSW just played a bit better. They stepped up and we didn’t step up with them and they took out the ” Montaya acknowledging the rivalry that exists between the two states, “After our first loss to NSW in the preliminary rounds we were just hungry to get a win…There is definitely a rivalry between the two teams you can really feel it.”

Charlotte reminisced over what was a special week for the girls, “ It was a really exciting week, and there was a lot of adrenaline pumping through the body which helped get you through the week.  The team was really close and we made new friends with teammates that we shared a cabin with, and it was really exciting to get a different perspective from our new coaches and get different feedback on your game.”  Playing with and against the best U17 netballers in the country was a real buzz for Montaya, “ It was hard at the start when you have to start learning to play with a whole new group of netballers, but it got easier once you got used to their different styles.  The Victorian team really connected well on and off the court, and that definitely helped us on court.”

Both Girls have been at Maribyrnong Sports Academy for their 5 years of High School and both credit the work of the MSA Strength and Conditioning staff and high performance coaches and teachers for their rise into being State team competitors, “ I think having lots of training and Gym very close together and being around that high level coaching and players who are all trying to push, has definitely helped with my mindset and also has helped in getting my body through the week”, says Charlotte while Montaya is in full agreement with her teammate “ Yeah I definitely believe that the Maribyrnong staff has helped us like through years 7, 8 and 9 to prepare for this sort of tournament with things like the feedback, recovery, gym and knowing our body and knowing when it’s enough and when to stop and stop if we need too.”

Meanwhile Charlotte has been named in the Australian u17 training squad which will take part in a series of training sessions later in the year. “ It’s really exciting and great to hear that a lot of the hard work that you have put in has paid off. I’m so looking forward to heading off to Canberra for a camp and working with all the great talent from around Australia.”

Both athletes now looking forward to putting into place what they have learnt and taking that knowledge to their local teams.

Alumni Performances We 01/05/22

Once again our Alumni here at Maribyrnong Sports Academy have put in some amazing performances here at home and in other parts of the world.  Here is how they went

A-League

Having signed a 2 year extension with the Newcastle Jets, Arthur Pappas coached his team to a victory over Macarther 3-0. 

Connor Metcalfe has been playing with Melbourne City in their AFC Champions League Group stages which saw City win 3 and draw 3 matches.

AFL

Luke Ryan gathered 20 possessions in Fremantle’s win over Geelong at GMHBA Stadium.

Joel Smith was subbed off at 3 quarter time in Melbourne’s win over Hawthorn. 

Zak Butters had 23 possessions including 5 clearances and 5 inside 50’s in a return to form for the Power who beat St Kilda.

Paul Curtis continues to impress for the Kangaroos and had 12 disposals including 1 goal 1, while Kane Turner had 17 touches also for North Melbourne in their loss to Carlton.

Gold Coast captain Touk Miller had 36 touches 6 tackles and 10 clearances in the Suns loss to Collingwood at the MCG.

Peter Wright also had a great day with 4 of Essendon’s 9 Goals in their loss to the Western Bulldogs

Cam Rainer kicked 3 goals in Brisbane’s victory over the Sydney

Meanwhile Buku Khamis continues to press for senior selection with another 4 goals for the Bulldogs in their VFL side.

Athletics

Celeste Mucci has been named in the Australian team for the Oceania Championships in June.  Celeste is currently competing in Japan where she won both the Oda memorial 100m hurdles in Hiroshima and the Kinami Memorial 100m hurdles in Osaka in the space of 3 days.

Badminton

Gronya Sommerville won the mixed doubles at the Oceania Championships played here in Melbourne.  Meanwhile Jacob Schuller lost in the quarter finals of the men’s singles at the same tournament.  We wish Jacob and Gronya the best of luck in the Commonwealth Games selections.

Cycling

Lucas Plapp finish 18th overall and 1 min 56 from the leader in the Tour de Romandie.  While Lucas won’t be riding for Ineos Grenadiers in the Giro De Italia it is hoped his next ride will be with the team in the Tour De France.