KELSO High School’s preparation for next month’s Australian Volleyball Schools Cup received a welcome boost recently with a pair of gold medal performances.
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The under 16s boys and girls teams both won their respective competitions during the fifth round of the NSW Volleyball Schools Cup held at the Genea Netball Centre and Sydney Olympic Park Sports Halls.
The girls’ gold medal was an impressive effort considering they had to play up an age group in 17s, while the boys’ success signals a surge up the standings for a hard-working collective.
Kelso’s first string under 15s boys side added to the school’s great day out with a bronze, achieving the result with a team of five.
The squads were only taking part in the most recent round of the series, as preparation for the upcoming national tournament in Melbourne, and coach Jerry Sheader said they made the most of it.
“The under 16s boys team won their division and they’ve just been getting stronger and stronger,” he said.
“They’ve been training consistently and a couple of the boys had been away training with the NSW team in holidays. Constant training has really developed that team.
“I was confident of the girls team doing well and winning a medal but they ended up winning the grand final quite easily. We could have possibly put them in the opens, which would have been a big test.”
Kelso’s leading volleyball players have shown themselves to be among the state’s best.
Those players have the chance to take their game to the next level when the school travels to the AVSC over December 8 to 13.
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“When we go to Melbourne they will host an Australian junior camp and we’ve had a number of players asked to stay back and try out for the national junior program,” Sheader said.
“Tyler Pears and Hamish Alexander have been asked to stay back. For the girls we have Zara Sheader, Tegan Bush, Harriet Fitzsimmons and Lily Grimmond. Kayla Pett, who plays in the older team, has also been asked to take part.”
The players were selected following nationals earlier this year in Queensland.
Kelso will be sending five teams to Melbourne, dropping back from the eight the school sent last year.
“That was our last tournament before Melbourne and we’ll training consistently before heading there,” Sheader said.
“We’ll be bringing in weekend training and look for some competitive games. It’s all stepping up over these last couple of weeks.
“Our under 16s girls will play in division one while the rest of the teams will play over divisions two and three.”
They’ve just been getting stronger and stronger ... [and] constant training has really developed that team.
- Jerry Sheader on Kelso's under 16s boys
Next month Kelso will be aiming to build off one of their most successful AVSC campaigns from 2017.
The year 8 combined Denison College division one girls side won gold, as did the year 10 division one boys.