On the 2^nd of April Footscray SDP students held a cricket gala day at Warringa Reserve. The day was held for the ESL students from Braybrook, Werribee and Glen Orden Primary Schools. Footscray SDP students were in charge of the day along with Western Bulldogs Representative Nish Moises, who had been working with the CVSDP students at previous clinics.

In the weeks leading up to the Gala day the CVSDP students introduced the game of cricket to the students as they had never heard of or played cricket before in their lives. The program was to get the kids active and teach them some new cricket skills which hopefully they would enjoy. A four week program was held at each school in which the CVSDP students introduced batting, fielding and bowling skills. The students picked up each skill very quickly and were very enthusiastic towards meeting new people and learning new skills. It was a great learning experience for us as we were working with some kids who couldn’t speak English and we also gained an appreciation for their background and heritage.

The Kanga 8’s day which the kids had been eagerly waiting for over the 4 week program period finally arrived with bus loads arriving with a smile on their face. The students were very competitive and it was actually quite rewarding to see the kids putting in place the skills we had taught them over such a short period of time. The day concluded with a ceremony where there were free stickers and other prizes provided by Cricket Victoria and the Western Bulldogs Football Club.

Michael Kelly & Matt Gudde

The three Cricket Victoria diploma groups, Elsternwick, Fitzroy/ Doncaster and Essendon have got off to quite a busy start to their final year. With only having two and a half contact days per week due to work placement requirements, every day needs to be productive.

The first term mainly consisted of four modules and a sports trainers course. We completed modules covering training programs where we learnt how to design training programs to meet the specific needs of a client, we learnt about sports nutrition and how important an athlete’s diet is to reaching their optimal performance, we designed and tested different types of recovery programs and finally we learnt about the advantages and many dangers of drugs in sport, thankfully not first hand.

One day a week for four weeks all three groups attended Elsternwick Park to complete a Level 1 Sports trainers course through Sports Medicine Australia. During the course we were taught several sports trainers principles, how to handle situations such as certain injuries and emergencies and we also recapped our prior knowledge of C.P.R, slings, strapping and taping and our D.R ABC’s. The sports trainers course was completed with great timing as we were just coming in to the start of the football season which meant there were many opportunities for work as a trainer for football teams. Several students made the most of these opportunities and are currently working in local football clubs.

Each student has also been kept busy having to complete a major project. All students are doing something different and each project involves a large amount of time, effort and planning. Keep checking the Enews for updates as we look forward to the much anticipated diploma group football round robin, Fitzroy / Doncaster are aiming to go back to back.

By Reece Cotter – Fitzroy / Doncaster (on behalf of all diploma groups)

On the 14^th of May the Northcote Cricket Victoria group played against Box Hill in our first football game in the competition between all the groups. The game was played in Doncaster as we were unable to play on Box Hills ground.

The first quarter was dominated by Northcote out scoring Box Hill by 6 goals, out running their opposition all over the ground.

The second quarter was a completely different story with Box Hill clawing their way back into the game winning the majority of the ruck contests with a bigger and stronger ruckman. With 2 girls in there forward line as well they were able to get themselves within 3 goals of Northcote.

The third quarter was a lot more even with both teams going goal for goal. But with a fitter and stronger team Box Hill were able to get within 3 points of Northcote at 3 quarter time.

The fourth quarter started with Box Hill kicking the first 3 and one of the goals coming from their girl in the forward line. Northcote were able to kick the next two but were never fit enough to get back into the game and lost by 12 points.

The best player for Northcote on the day was Phillip Barker who was very solid at centre half back and didn’t make many mistakes. His opponent didn’t score a goal all day and he kept Northcote in the game during the second quarter. Good all round game

Ben Slaviero and Tim Clark - Northcote

Young Asics Red Rockets Captain/Coach Tyler Capon has put his team in disarray after a controversial Apco Premiership Season encounter.

With very high expectations going into the match, the Red Rockets once again went down to their rivals The Yellow Submarines by one straight kick . The score was 7-6.

Capon was reported for striking and sent from the field at half time for striking backman Lewis Hyland. This undisciplined act has put the Rockets under more pressure as they head into round 4 next week, winless.

After the match Capon was unavailable for interview. Vice captain Michael Condy said ‘’What he (Capon) did during half time was undisciplined and didn’t show the leadership required to be captain/coach of our team. He knows the consequences for his actions and will be better off for the learning experience.”

Condy also praised the efforts of the young players that stood out and took upon roles with Capon’s absence. “We had great contributions from players like Fordy (Toby Ford) and Jimmy (James Ford), who stepped up when we needed.”

Hyland starred with 4 majors. The Submarines ran the ball well through the midfield and looked to be the fitter of the two sides. Submarines Daniel Maclean said “it was fantastic to get another win but the challenge was to continue playing good football.”

Next week’s match will be played on Thursday at 1.30pm, gates open at 11.00am.

By Michael Condy - Geelong

In the first term at the Essendon Campus we covered many areas within the Sport and Recreation Industry. This included the introduction of the new certificate three and four’s into the course. We covered the coaching aspect of the course early so the new faces could take on the roles as we got stuck into our clinic preparations for the 2009 year.

Some of the clinics that we have done are primary schools around the area just to get them familiar and prepared for the kanga 8 carnivals later on in the year. While we have been busy with clinics and school work we have made time to complete some of the students event days, for example Hamish and James showed the class some rugby league skills and drills and then finished it off with a game of touch rugby. Jamie Anderson took the class to riverside golf club for a game of golf. On the last day of term we went to Broadmeadows sporting club and Mick showed the class some lawn bowl skills and then played a game.

Throughout the year we as a class want to promote women’s cricket around the area of Essendon/ Maribyrnong to hopefully help women become confident to join a cricket team and enjoy a Saturday afternoon. We are targeting many schools throughout the year and want to see maximum participation from females.

Throughout the year, every Thursday we have been given schools to run clinics at. Our first major project is the Broadmeadows Special School. The class is prepared and have come up with numerous activities to run with the kids. It will be a tough task as we have not been confronted with kids with disabilities. Other clinics we are doing are around the Essendon area and we are looking forward to promoting cricket in our area.

By Hamish and Mick - Essendon

Over the past two terms we have experienced and participated in many activities. We have learnt how to take clinics at primary schools and high schools and what is needed to make them successful and to make sure that the children get something out of them.

We have had two guest speakers, one being Marc Murphy who plays for Carlton and the other Daniel Jackson who plays for Richmond. Both of these professional footballers were inspirational and gave us all an insight to their lives and what is expected from them.

Amongst listening to speakers, running clinics and helping out Roberts McCubin Primary school with their Athletics day which was called off half way through the day due to the weather we have also been focusing on our personal fitness. We have had time trials around the tan, used the gym facilities at the MCG and have done the 1000 steps in Ferntree Gully.

By Jessica Russo – Doncaster

Almost every week the Box Hill Cricket Victoria Sports Development Group and I go into the MCG to do various activities using the state of the art facilities. We get their bright and early and start of with a net session in the indoor nets and the different types of wickets, we use the speed gun and video our batting and bowling techniques. Briefly after this we move into the footy change rooms to have recess.

We then move to the weights room to use all the different gym equipment that work on all parts of our body. After this we move into the cycle room and jump on the bikes. The Certificate 4 students run these sessions, and they usually do a pretty good job of making us really feel it. We use different techniques, such as, sprints, up hills at resistance and intensity to really make us hurt. After this we are able to relax and recover with everybody’s favourite part of the day, lunch.

After lunch we head to Gosch’s paddock to play a very competitive game of either football or soccer. Finally after a long tiring day we are able to go home and relax.

Tom McDonald – Box Hill

In the first term of 2009 for the Dandenong Sports Development Program took part in numerous sporting events that were mainly run and organized by the students.

Some of the sporting events included Cricket and Basketball which were two very successful events in which everyone enjoyed.

The Basketball event involved a number of teams competing in a round robin competition format with the winners playing off in finals. The Cricket event was played in a different format with two teams playing off against each other in a 25/25 over match. The best players were then chosen to take on the Box Hill Sports Development class. Unfortunately Dandenong lost that game but proved that they had the organizational skills to arrange a successful event.

Also during Term 1 the Dandenong class conducted numerous successful Cricket clinics for primary schools. This has resulted in the studentsbeing asked back to conduct another coaching clinic at their schools.

By Matthew Dinnie – Dandenong

On Thursday the 2^nd of April, a Gala Day was held at Werribee between three local ESL schools. Braybrook, Glen Orden and Werribee were the schools competing in the Gala Day. All CVSDP students, from both Footscray groups, turned up to Werribee excited about the possibility of some new cricket superstars being unearthed. The day got off to a good early start and we decided to run a few drills before we got into the Kanga 8’s games, just to refresh the kids skills. After the kids had completed the drills in the morning we moved into the Kanga 8’s tournament. With each ESL school providing three Kanga 8’s teams, there was plenty of action and the sixes and fours would not stop.

Each CVSDP student was assigned a role on the day, and it showed with the day running perfectly to plan. All ESL students thoroughly enjoyed the day, as to did the CVSDP students who got some invaluable hands on experience. After all Kanga 8’s games were completed the students sat down for the presentation. Every student that participated in the day was handed a Certificate, with their name on it and stickers were handed to their teachers to hand out in class as well.

All in all the day was a massive success, with everyone involved thoroughly enjoying the day.

By Jesse Merlo – Footscray 1