MSA launches research centre

An Australian first high school sport research centre has been opened at Maribyrnong College within the Maribyrnong Sports Academy program today, and it’s set to influence the way teenagers go about their education, training, and preparation for sport.

The MSA Research Centre aims to provide evidence-based, innovative solutions to youth athlete development via high quality research. The centre will be a first of its kind in an Australian High School Academy and is committed to producing practical and applied research outcomes, which can be translated into a holistic training environment.

The MSA research centre will have the ability to test and work with over 550 athletes competing in a range of sports including Australian football, athletics, aquatics, badminton, baseball, basketball, cricket, football (soccer), golf, hockey, judo, netball, taekwondo, tennis, and volleyball. MSA currently provides a high-performance daily training environment for students to thrive in both sport and education and achieve their dreams.

The strength of the research program is the opportunity for multi-disciplinary projects related to youth athlete development; including and not exclusive to physical preparation; sport specific skill development; exercise preparation; injury prevention; rehabilitation; mental well-being; nutritional education and academic performance.

The MSA research centre will look to undertake collaborative research projects with local, national, and international partners.  An advisory committee has been set up to oversee the research centre and will include doctors and professors from around the world including The Universities of Melbourne and Sydney, Victoria University, La Trobe University, Edith Cowen University, Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales and both the Victorian Institute of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport.

MSA Sports Director Mark McAllion believes the Research Centre can play a vital role in adolescent sport. “There is a genuine lack of research related to teenage athletes worldwide.  The MSA Research Centre aims to fill that gap and ultimately develop knowledge that can improve the way young athletes are educated, coached, supported and managed.”

Attending the launch was local state member Katie Hall MP (pictured above) as well as staff from the education department and members of the Advisory Committee. We also welcomed a delegation from the Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales who will be working with MSA on research projects.

MSA Tennis in straight sets.

Maribyrnong Sports Academy congratulates our Tennis department for it’s award last night as the most outstanding school of the year in Victoria at the Victorian tennis awards 2023.

We are also proud of our head coach Marc Sophoulis who won the Coaching Excellence award for Development.

It been a big year for our tennis program which has included students traveling overseas to pursue an improvement in their world rankings.  Head coach Marc Sophoulis says he is so proud to claim both the individual and school awards. “We are truly honoured and grateful to be awarded the Most Outstanding School award for 2023 from Tennis Victoria.  As a school we pride ourselves on creating an inclusive environment that helps our student-athletes strive to reach their goals whilst becoming outstanding citizens in the community. We aim to provide life lessons through our training sessions, and we are so proud of the students who turn up every day and give their absolute all.” Sophoulis said, “I’m also absolutely humbled to be recognized as the Coaching Excellence Development Coach of the Year Victoria.  A big thank you to Tennis Victoria for this incredible honour.”

MSA Sports Director Mark McAllion says the award is a validation for the work that is done here at MSA. “We have many individual students win awards for the work they put into their chosen sport, but we rarely get recognition for an entire Academy group.  This award is wonderful recognition for the staff and student-athletes in the tennis program, who work incredibly hard to be better each day.”  

Well done to all students, coaches and staff involved in our Tennis Program here at MSA.

The Score 171023

It’s been a big week for MSA Alumni with summer sports here in Australia all starting to come online. Here are our Alumni performances.

Cricket

Congratulations to MSA Alumni Farzan Chowna on making his debut century in Victorian Premier Cricket over the weekend.  Farzan came in at number 3 in the order and came into the game when Essendon lost their first wicket for 91 runs.  He remained 118 not out with Essendon finishing 4/374 from their 90 over.  His 118no came from 176 balls with 13 fours. 

Melbourne Marathon

Congratulations to Bianca Puglisi on completing the Melbourne half marathon finishing in fourth place in the Women’s section.  Some stats on Bianca, she finished the half marathon (21.1kms) in a time of 1.16.9.  See was 4th out of 4,706 females who ran the half marathon.  She was 46th of the 10,056 people who ran the half marathon, and she won her age group being 20-24 females.

Badminton

Gronya Somerville and her Mixed Doubles partner Kenneth Choo were defeated in the final of the 2023 Yonnex Bendigo International.  After winning the first set Somerville and Choo drop the second and third losing the final to the Chinese Taipei pairing 12-21, 21-14, 21-11.  Unfortunately, Gronya didn’t get on the court in the Women’s doubles as her partner pulled out due to injury.

Football

Congratulation to the following players who have recently signed contracts with professional clubs. 

·       Jake Nadjovski – Contract extension for Western United. 

·       Matthew Grimaldi – Signed new Scholarship contract for Western United.

·       Zac Kocankovski – Signed Professional Contract with Macedonian First Division Club Bregalnica Stip.

Connor Metcalfe started for Australia in defence, in their game against England at Wembley Stadium on Saturday Morning.  Australia went down in the friendly 1-0.  They next play New Zealand in Brentford.  These games act as a warmup, prior to the round of World Cup Qualifiers starting in November.

Polly Doran started for the Chrystal Palace Women’ s team on the weekend after a stint with the Australian U23 team in Italy.  Chrystal Palace defeated London City 6-1.

In the A-League Women, Naomi Chinnama remained on the bench for Melbourne City’s 1-0 win over Wellington, she is also back from the Italy cam with the U23 women’s team.  Annabelle Martin started for the Central Coast Mariners in their 1-0 loss to Newcastle.

The A-League men’s competition is set to start this weekend.

Hockey

Cooper Burns opened the scoring for Melbourne Hockey Centre in their clash against Adelaide in the National Hockey One Competition.  The Melbourne Hockey Centre lead 2-0 early in the 3rd quarter before Adelaide went on a rampage and scored 3 late goals to win.  Connor Otterbach and Nye Roberts were also a part of the team for MHC.

AFLW – Round 7

Adelaide Crows v Western Bulldogs – Crows by 42 points

Bulldogs – Jess Fitzgerald had 21 Disposals, 1 mark and 2 tackles.

St Kilda v Giants – St Kilda by 13 points

St Kilda – Georgia Patrikios had 20 disposals, 4 clearances and 5 tackles.

Geelong v Fremantle – Geelong 24 points

Geelong – Georgie Prespakis had 25 disposals, 8 tackles and 6 clearances.

Sydney v Hawthorn – Hawks by 14 points

Hawthorn – Charlotte Baskaran had 7 disposals and 7 tackles in the win for the Hawks.

Richmond v Essendon – Essendon by 17 points

Richmond – Monique Conti had 27 disposals, 8 tackles and 2 marks .

Essendon – Georgia Nanscawen had 21 disposals, 10 tackles and 1 mark.

North Melbourne v Port Adelaide – North by 63 points

North Melbourne – Amy Smith has 11 disposals and a mark in North’s big win.

West Coast Eagles v Narrm

Narmm – Libby Birch had 7 disposals, 3 tackles and 4 marks in Melbourne’s win.

Injury List into round 8

Sydney – Aliesha Newman – Concussion – Test

Richmond – Elle McKenzie – Ankle – 3 to 4 weeks