Annual Sport Report
Westminster Sport 2024
Westminster’s Co-curricular Sporting Program has continued to provide an extensive range of opportunities for students to discover their passions, develop their skills, and thrive in 2024. Following the Co-curricular Sport Review completed in 2023, we have made significant progress this year, expanding and improving our programs to students through a number of new initiatives. As we strive to provide a positive sporting experience for students and families, we remain steadfast in developing a number of areas in our program, and continue to seek your feedback throughout this process. We encourage you to complete the Summer Sport Survey, previously sent to all families participating in Summer Sport Programs in both the Senior and Preparatory Schools.
Our compass, which guides the direction of Sport at Westminster, is informed by our shared vision for the future of Sport at Westminster. This vision helps to guide the decisions we make and underpins what we value in our sporting teams at Westminster.
Our vision:
Provide a positive Sports Performance Program which empowers students from participation through to high performance to equip them with important life skills and create a lifelong connection to Westminster School.
Through this, our objectives are for students to:
- Value commitment to the team.
- Provide maximum effort in practice and competition.
- Have opportunities to develop towards higher performance.
- Celebrate defining experiences and successes.
- Demonstrate humility.
We have launched a number of new initiatives, programs, and staff this year, including:
New Coordinator of Football, Heath Lawry, and new First XVIII Coaches for both the Girls’ and Boys’ Football program. This is highlighted by the appointment of former SANFL Senior Coach, Seamus Maloney, as the Boys’ First XVIII Coach, and Glenelg SANFLW Assistant Coach, Emily Woods as the girls’ First XVIII Coach.
New Coordinator of Netball, Carly Heinrich, along with new Netball Premier League Coach, Cathy Fellows, who is also the Championship winning assistant coach at the Adelaide Thunderbirds.
New Coordinator of Cricket and internationally recognised Coach, Jamie Siddons, who has made a significant impact on the cricket program this term. Assisting Jamie in coaching for both the Girls’ and Boys’ Cricket programs is Samantha Betts. Sam is an experienced cricketer having played for a number of years with the Adelaide Strikers and SA Scorpions, and has been a great addition to our cricket coaching staff.
New Coordinator of Soccer, Matthew Beeston. Matt is a teacher at Westminster, an experienced soccer coach, and has played semi-professional soccer in England for a number of years. As a result of Matt’s enthusiasm and new initiatives, we have seen a sizeable increase in soccer participation. He will be supported next year by well-known Soccer Development Coach, Neil Young. Neil has been a lead coach at Cumberland United and has a highly successful Academy program. Prior to, Neil had a distinguished career in English soccer with over 400 appearances for AFC Bournemouth and Tottenham Hotspur.
We are also pleased to announce the appointment of a new Coordinator of Basketball, Jakob Dorricott. Jakob is well known in South Australian basketball and has been a significant contributor to the Sturt Basketball Club and more recently, as a Development Coach with Adelaide 36ers. We look forward to announcing some exciting holiday basketball clinics that Jakob will be running at Westminster during the summer holidays in conjunction with NBL star and 36ers Captain, DJ Vasiljevic.
In addition to our new coaches, we have launched a number of new program and initiatives, including:
1:1 Mentoring
One-on-one mentoring for student-athletes who are involved in sport at a high level.
Athletic Development Sessions
Athletic development sessions specifically designed for either teams or individuals.
Development Programs
Development programs for selected sports in both the Senior and Preparatory Schools to help extend higher performing student-athletes.
Performance Series
Performance Series which covers a number of specialist topics, including nutrition, psychology and athlete profiles, for students who are interested in gaining an insight into how professional athletes prepare.
Co-Curricular Leadership Development
Starting early in 2025, we will be launching our new Co-curricular Leadership Development program which will be facilitated by former Port Adelaide Captain, Tom Jonas, and former Thunderbird and Australian Diamonds Captain, Natalie von Bertouch.
Westminster Sport had another busy term with summer sport resuming in Term 4. We have a record number of Volleyball participants, and we look forward to the Girls Open team travelling to the Gold Coast next week to compete in the weeklong Australian Volleyball Schools Cup. We also have nearly all our Boys Senior A team returning to School next year, which will make for quite a formidable outfit.
We have celebrated a number of outstanding individual sporting achievements in 2024; and continue to learn of our students’ success as Term 4 comes to a closure. We are pleased to share the recent selection of six Westminster students in the South Australian U17 Netball team. To have six of the 12 selections for this team come from Westminster is an outstanding result for the girls and the School. Congratulations to the girls selected: Chloe Peacock, Anna Goad, Darcy May-Martin, Maiya Kotowski, Elouise Nordhausen and Jazz McKay.
Similarly, the number of participants in our Tennis teams continue to grow under the guidance of Nick Garrett. We look forward to announcing some new initiatives and opportunities in Westminster Tennis early in Term 1 next year.
Cricket Coordinator, Jamie Siddons, has made excellent progress this term, highlighted by the sterling last over win for our Year 7A team over cricket powerhouse, Prince Alfred College, in the last game for the season. Our First XI has also had an exceptional term and have played some outstanding cricket. There is a lot of promising talent who will be prominent in the ‘Firsts’ next year.
The Preparatory School, under of the guidance of Head of PE and Sport, Nick Warren, has seen a substantial increase in the number of students participating in Co-curricular sport, which has resulted in a significant increase in the number of teams. Nick has done a superb job in expanding the opportunities and quality of coaching for the Prep School students. We are working hard to continue to provide more sporting opportunities for our Prep School, with all our new Coordinators and coaching appointments continuing to work with, and coach the students in our Prep school.
Overall, 2024 has been successful not only on the playing fields and courts, but most importantly, in the way our sporting program has delivered benefits to our students through participation, and through the overall experience provided to our students, families, and wider Westminster community. The School is committed to maintaining the momentum of this progress into 2025, and we look forward to sharing further updates and initiatives in due course.