Scotch College

Scotch support group snowballs

Andrew and Shadda Abercrombie, Campbell Neal and Steve Whittington (TIC Snowboarding)

As many of you may know, Scotch College was part of the first ever Interschools Snow Ski Race over 40 years ago. The event was held in the September school holidays between Scotch and Melbourne Grammar with Scotch being victorious.

Since then the Interschools competition has grown to such an extent that this year there will be over 6000 entries for the event that runs for six days during the last week of August at Mt Buller.

Over the years Scotch has produced a number of outstanding skiers, dating back to the first interschools when one of the competitors, Simon Brown, went on to represent Australia at the Innsbruck Winter Olympics.

To encourage and foster this long history of skiing at Scotch, the Scotch Snow Sports Support Group has been formed by a group of interested parents across both junior and senior campuses. Since the first meeting in May, 2004, the group has put in place a parental support group to assist the Scotch staff in the Interschools and to encourage wider participation across the School.

“Our aim is to assist the staff in helping students achieve their personal best in a safe environment in what can sometimes be a dangerous sport,” said Tom Swan, President of the parents group who is an Old Boy as well as a current parent.

Over 60 Scotch parents, staff and supporters enjoyed the cocktail party held on Saturday 31, July kindly hosted by Mary-Ruth and Peter McLennan at Mt Buller before the school time trials from which teams are selected for the Victorian Interschools Competition. Parents of both Junior and Senior School have supported the introduction of perpetual trophies for Division 1 (Years 11 & 12) and Division 4 (Years 5 & 6) for the disciplines of Alpine, Snowboarding and Moguls. The Cups will be awarded on the basis of Victorian Interschool Competition Results at the Scotch Snow Sport Support Group AGM on Thursday 7 October. It is planned to establish cups for each division and each discipline, including Cross Country, in the years to come.

Skiing is a great family sport for all ages and the Scotch Old Boys have become involved as well. Koomerang Ski Club will sponsor Team 2004 lapel badges to recognise and encourage the sport.

After the Scotch trials for 2004 on Sunday 1 August for the 60 students, a training session was held for the senior boys run by Kenneth McAllister and Charlie Payne (Year 11 boys) who are both registered Level 1 coaches. Our thanks to both of them for their help. It is wonderful to see the Junior School and the Senior School working together to represent the School. Good luck to all the boys who will be entering the Victorian Interschool Snowsports Championships for Scotch and we hope that a number of teams qualify for the National Interschools to be held at Perisher Blue over the first weekend of the September holidays.

Become involved. For more information see the Scotch Web site http://scotch.vic.edu.au/Scotch.html and click on the Snow Sports link.

Amanda Derham