Great Scot December 2019 Great Scot 158_December_ONLINE | Page 48

SPORT SNOWSPORTS BOYS ARE CHAMPIONS AGAIN IN 2019 After a slow start the snow came thick and fast, to produce a fabulous season on the slopes this year – and this is somewhat of a metaphor for how the season was for our snowsports team, too. This year we assembled our biggest-ever team – 97 competitors – who competed in a total of 93 teams in nine disciplines in three divisions across the Senior School. After two solid weekends of training we were under way with the cross country event at Mount Buller, traditionally not our strongest event. But the boys dug deep and some solid results were achieved with a podium finish in every event. Alpine events have always been our strength, and this is where we began to claw back important results to get us in front of our long-term rivals, Melbourne Grammar School. After four days of racing, Scotch and MGS were one point apart going into the final day. Whoever won the day would win the Victorian Interschool Snowsports Championships. This year it was our boys! Scotch defeated MGS 200 points to 190. To win the championship requires depth of talent in every event, discipline and division, right from Year 7 to Year 12. This is extremely difficult to do, but we had a great team this year. Snowsports requires this significant breadth of contribution to win, and it’s so great that a boy in Year 7 contributes just as significantly as a boy in Year 12. Overall results for Scotch at the Victorian Interschools included nine teams in first place, seven teams in second place and eight teams in third place. Scotch also had three state champions – Angus Hill (Year 11), William Atwell (Year 9) and Ed Hill (Year 7) – who were 48 Great Scot Issue 158 – December 2019 placed first in moguls, division one, two and three, respectively. Tamar Stafford (Year 11) won the Bernd Greber Cup, which is awarded to the Interschools competitor who is most successful across all skiing disciplines. From our 93 teams, 43 teams qualified through to the nationals event. A number of the teams won their place by only tenths of a second. In one case it was a matter of just 0.15 seconds across six individual runs, highlighting the importance of every team member giving every last effort. We have two expert coaches in Cam Bolton (World Cup and Olympic snowboarder) and Harvey Edmanson (’17), the current Australian number one giant slalom rider, who have contributed to this fine-tuning of race-craft and strategy to strengthen both individual and team results. We would also like to acknowledge the hard work of snowsports winter sport program TIC, Mr Olivier Marquet, and Mr Peter Riley. Our winter sport program provides valuable on-snow and dryland training, preparing boys for the season. The program has enabled boys to develop to a level that they most likely would never have been able to reach, had it not been for the opportunities and coaching we can provide as a school. This, in conjunction with support from the snowsports parents’ auxiliary, the Snowsports Club, provides every Scotch boy with the opportunity to ski or snowboard. Snowsports is alive and well in our School, and with the gear dried and packed away for another year, we are already planning and preparing for 2020. CAMERON CUTCHIE – TIC, SNOWSPORTS