During August, 40 of our students boarded a bus bound for Melbourne to compete against Penola Catholic College in the annual Josephite Exchange. The annual Josephite Exchange has been running each year since 2012 and continues to be a highlight for our students and a great opportunity them to demonstrate their fantastic sporting abilities as well as celebrate two schools’ rich Josephite history.
Preparation for this year’s Josephite Exchange began way back in early Term 1 with staff busy enquiring and booking accommodation, transport and activities for students in Melbourne. The 2017 Josephite Exchange team was selected late in Term 2 and training for the competition began shortly after this.
Before we knew it, the time had come to depart on the bus for Melbourne. It was obvious that students were excited, but also not overly keen for the long bus ride to come. To their credit they handled the trip extremely well and we arrived safely at our South Bank accommodation later that evening. We quickly checked into our accommodation before gathering for our first group dinner of the trip and then returning to bed in preparation for a busy day of Melbourne activities on Wednesday.
Wednesday was a day dedicated to exploring Melbourne. We started the day with a walk along the Yarra to the South Wharf DFO for some time to explore and shop. A couple of hours passed and students regathered with bags of shopping, so much so that we had to make a pit stop back at our accommodation to drop off the bags before visiting Melbourne Sea Life Aquarium. Students had a fantastic time observing the different exhibits and animals that the aquarium had to offer. Later that evening the group made its way to Playtime at the Crown where we spent the night playing arcade games against each other followed by dinner and Ten Pin Bowling. The night was filled with plenty of laughs and it was fantastic to see everyone interacting in an environment so different to school.
Mr John Konopka joined us early Thursday morning as we boarded the bus to travel to Penola Catholic College for the first day of competition. On arrival Penola College warmly welcomed us with a great opening ceremony that really got both teams fired up for the competition which began shortly after with boys basketball kicking things off. The boys dominated the first half and were bound to get the first win for SA but it was taken from us in the last seconds of the match, going down 21 - 23. Yianni Bouras was a strong performer during the match and named MVP. It was then the girls’ turn to shoot some hoops but unfortunately for us it appeared that shooting hoops was the Victorian girls forte. The girls battled hard but ended up going down 6 - 28. Joy Assaad was named MVP for the SA girls.
Basketball may have been Victoria’s game but there was no chance Netball was going the same way. Danielle Smith-Sparrow was fantastic as our SA girls dominated play from start to finish, winning 12 -8. The boys followed up the girls’ great performance with some dominance of their own. Dale Pearce’s height was impossible to stop as goal shooter as the boys ran away winners 28 - 6. Overall each victory scores 1 point toward the Josephite Exchange shield. The two wins from the netball left the competition even with Futsal, Table Tennis and the all-important Debate to come after lunch.
Throughout the day the atmosphere in the Penola College gym was fantastic with both states really getting behind their teams on the court and as spectators. A couple of days before we departed the topic of the debate was released, “Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios should not be allowed to play tennis for Australia”. Our debate guru, Jake Williams, quickly went to work sculpting arguments for and against this controversial topic. A coin was tossed in the morning of day 1 to decide who would take each side, resulting in SA arguing “for”. Alexandra Lehman and Thumbiko Nyrienda joined Jake Williams and delivered well structured arguments which resulted in another victory for SA.
During the afternoon, the boys and girls battled it out in Futsal (indoor soccer) and Table Tennis. The Table Tennis resulted in a draw to the boys and a loss to girls. Laura Niejalke showed her great skill and ability as the girls fought hard in Futsal but couldn’t put enough past the Victorian keeper, losing 1 – 3. The expert coaching of Nick Tattoli must have paid dividends for the boys as they scored early and with help from Jake Williams as goal keeper maintained their lead to run away unexpected winners 2 – 1, bringing an end to day one of the competition with the score being even with SA and Vic both on 4 wins.
The Josephite Exchange traditions continued Thursday evening as we returned to Penola College for Mass in celebration of our shared Josephite history. Students and staff from SA and Victoria gathered together to reflect on our schools’ our connections with Mary MacKillop and Julian Tension Woods and their impact they have had on our special schools. This Mass was followed by a group dinner, which was a great opportunity for students from both schools to get to know each other. The dinner was followed by a quiz and music performance by some students from Penola College. As the students from Penola College performed, word quickly spread of Christopher Mkandala’s talents behind the microphone and before we knew it he was entertaining the room with his own rendition of a Kanye West hit.
The team returned early Friday morning hoping to secure the Josephite shield. The day started with boys and girls European handball which was a new sport to the exchange this year, included in the fixture by Victorian organiser Brett Dickenson as he thought it may give the Victorians an advantage. This was not the case; the atmosphere created by our team members was amazing as both the boys and girls dominated the games winning 12 – 3 and 4 – 0 respectively. Best players in both games went to our goal keepers, Mohammed Kamara and Ruby Tolja who were almost unpassable.
This took the overall score to 6 – 4 with only Volleyball and AFL to be played. By this time the team worked out that we only needed to win two of the next four games to retain the Josephite shield for 2017. Running side by side in the Penola College gym, both boys and girls demonstrated their excellent Volleyball skills in what has become a very popular sport over the last 12 months at MCC. In the end both boys and girls won 3 sets to 0 with great performances from Zenya Lodenstein and Jacob Jolly.
With the Josephite shield securely in our hands, we travelled to Penola College’s senior campus for the final event of the competition, the boys and girls AFL matches. The boys kicked off first and immediately showcased their elite skills, with Tom Carter racking up possessions and moving forward to kick goals. He was well supported by Tom Quarry and Jacob Jolly in the midfield as well as Brayden White in the ruck and Dale Pearce at full forward. As the game went on it was obvious that AFL was SA’s strength and the sportsmanship that our students showed, including those who hadn’t played much footy was fantastic. A highlight for this game was Yianni Bouras getting himself a goal and the boys doing their very best to set Mohammed Kamara for his first goal. Final score 96 (MCC) – 25 (PCC).
Finally, the girls wrapped up the competition with a hard-fought win over the Vic’s (29 – 20). Rachel Routledge was fantastic in the ruck, as well as Laura Niejalke who kept the ball moving forward. The girls didn’t shy away from the tackling contact as they crashed in and never gave up. Eventually, a great soccer goal from Lily Hill sealed the victory for the SA girls and well and truly secured the Josephite shield for team SA.
After the presentation of the winners of the 2017 Josephite Exchange it was time to return to the CBD for our final dinner before making our way to Etihad Stadium to watch Hawthorn play the Western Bulldogs. At this stage, looking around I could see some very tired looking students and knew there wasn’t going to be a problem with the kids sleeping on the bus overnight on the way home. Once the footy was finished we jumped on the bus and began our journey back to Adelaide. As was the trend of the trip, we ran into some navigation issues on the way out of Melbourne, but arrived safely back in Adelaide early Saturday morning, all feeling like we could sleep for a week.
Overall the 2017 Josephite Exchange was a fantastic trip and I would like to personally thank all the students involved. The behaviour and maturity they showed throughout the trip was outstanding and is a credit to them. I would also like to thank the staff who attended the trip including Rebecca Footner and Karma Agostinetto. A special thank you to Cameron Franks for all his hard work in organising various components and activities throughout what was an unforgettable exchange for our students.
Next year we will host Penola Catholic College here in SA and will be looking to make it 5 wins in a row!
