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Principal's Address: Summer Sports Assembly Term 1 2011

Principal's Address
Sydney Boys High School
Summer Sports Assembly
Held on 11 February 2011

Thank you to Mr Loizou for his organisation and promotion of High swimming in 2010. I trust that everyone will support the school swimming carnival on Monday. Our swimming program needs all the best senior swimmers we have to make the effort to compete for the school on Friday nights. We had quite a good team of seniors for GPS last year but they were mostly in Year 12. We have half a dozen highly talented junior swimmers who will win in a variety of events but we need more participation from our senior swimmers. Let’s get behind the program, boys.

Water polo has been doing better in the junior competition and, despite variable access to training pools, is building in skill. Ms Evans has managed the sport well, with expert assistance from Sydney University Sports coaches. We need more players in this sport too.

Sailing has established itself at Double Bay Sailing Club and through Sydney High School Sailing Inc is negotiating a medium term occupancy agreement. Two sailors are accessing the very strong Laser racing program conducted by the Double Bay Sailing on Saturday afternoons. Some Old Boys have joined the Association and are using the school boats for Sunday sailing. Mrs Collignon is taking leave to have a baby and we thank her for her efforts managing sailing over several years. Mr Moody has taken over as MIC. Thank you to him for taking on the role. Our coach, Old Boy Adam South, continues to build links for our program. The Sailing Committee, chaired by Richard James, is active in supporting the sport.

Mr David Deep, of Indeep International, is managing the tennis program for us. He is supplying coaches and administration in his dual roles of MIC tennis and coach of first grade. I would like to thank him for all his work. A Tennis Committee is reforming and I wish it well in the coming season. After five years of helping to repay the tennis court development loan, tennis is finally able to access the refurbished courts free of charge. The first grade squad performed much better in the trial season, finishing third overall. The boys maintained their regimen of weights and sprints and are showing the benefits. The stage is set for some improved competition results from our boys in first and second grade this term. They have set themselves performance goals.

You can only develop positive motivation about your chosen sport within a coherent belief structure and values system. You also need strongly desired and clearly defined goals in harmony with those beliefs and values. Often at High we have boys who really want to do well at sport but their motivation is weakened by conflicting values and responsibilities: for example, family or cultural commitments, coaching, transport issues, family resistance to time demands or part time work. These are called ‘secondary gains’ and they can sabotage performance or cause boys to drop out of a sport altogether if they are not identified and resolved. As part of this process, establishing a personal values hierarchy is useful. Take 5 minutes to list the things you value (say family, friends, education, sport, leisure) and then rank them in order of importance to you now. Ask yourself how much time you spent last week on each of these areas of life that you value. Did the hierarchy of time spent match your hierarchy of values? If not, then you need to reconsider what you value or take steps to realign important values and time. To perform well you have to have the right state of mind. I hope all the boys named here today have success in their chosen sport as a high ranking value in their personal hierarchy. Congratulations to all boys who have been selected in GPS teams to represent their school.