What an amazing finish to 2022! It has been an absolute privilege to work in a public school that produces quality sporting teams that are competitive on a national level. It has been well worth the drive to Carrara to watch the most talented, physically gifted, and cohesive team of players I have ever seen in my career. Congratulations to the GPS Basketball Firsts who finished 3rd at the National Basketball Schools Championships. The GPS Tennis Firsts also shining brightly in Albury with their fourth position in the National Tennis Championships. This week, the GPS Firsts Volleyball compete in the National Volleyball Champion Schools and the GPS Firsts Cricket teams compete in the National Five Highs Competition.

I am signing off and pulling up stumps on my teaching career and current role as Director of GPS Sports and Boys Activities. It has been a wonderful combined 20 years of being part of the State High culture. This extraordinary experience would not have been possible without the community surrounding and within the school. Working above and beyond to provide so many opportunities for State High students are the parents, guardians, teachers, support staff, groundsmen and executive team.

Thank you.

Ms Vicki Goodall – Director of GPS Sport and Boys Activities

GPS Basketball

Our Firsts Basketball team had a great finish to our week on the Gold Coast competing in the Championship Division of the Australian Schools Tournament.

Our boys showed great resilience and fighting spirit in the bronze medal game against The Southport School. After a disappointing loss the night before against Rowville Secondary College (Victoria) – who simply moved the ball extremely well and shot the lights out – our lads rallied to win by 30 points after being down by 16 points at half time. It was great to get a ‘chip’ – as the team have termed it – and also finish a very special year for State High Boys Basketball with a resounding win against one of our great GPS rivals.

Congratulations to Roman Siulepa (Year 10) who was chosen in the Tournament All Star 5!

All credit to our coaches – Mr Kris Robinson, Mr Adam Nicholson and Mr Brett Sue See – and, of course, to the team who remained focussed right from the beginning of the year and never forgot the goals that were set for 2022.

In addition, we congratulate the performances of our other teams in the GPS competition, especially our Year 9/10 CBSQ gold medallists and Year 7/8 CBSQ silver medallist team. This has been one of the most successful seasons in State High Basketball history.

Many thanks for the support of our players, families, volunteer coaches and managers, as well as Ms Leisa McGiffin, Ms Vicki Goodall and Ms Karlie Playne in the Sports Office. Also, many thanks to Mr Haynes and the BSHS Executive Team and our supporting staff for their invaluable contributions.

“Teamwork makes the dream work!”

Despite QDU competitions ending in August, State High debaters have been working hard to shore up our success for an outstanding 2023 season. Our students have been eagerly looking for opportunities to prepare themselves through participating in the Intraschool Competition, trials for 2023 team and attending our Staff-versus-Students Comedy Debate which was held during our End of Season Dinner.

Over the last five weekends, our debaters have had a strong showing at the trials for the 2023 Queensland State Debating Team. We had eleven State students making the top 48 and eight students making it to the top 24. After several gruelling rounds of debates and extensive feedback from some of Queensland’s best coaches and adjudicators, we are thrilled to announce that five of our students have been named in the top 12. Congratulations to Liam Cleary, Emma Fensom, Zoe Cartwright and Laura Gough in Year 11, and Zhexi Teng in Year 9 (the only Year 9 student to be in the squad) for their outstanding performances.

Over the next few months, these students will train and trial intensively in the lead-up for selection in March next year to represent Queensland in the National Schools Debating Competition. We know that, regardless of selection, these students – and State High Debating as a whole – will benefit tremendously from this rich experience.

After winning the State Team Titles in Rockhampton, our First IV squad travelled to the Australian Schools Team Tennis Challenge to compete over four days of play on the natural grass courts of the regional town of Albury on the NSW and Victorian border.

Noah Brownrigg (Year 10), Arjun Balakrishnan (Year 12), Daniel Lemmon-Warde (Year 9), Jason Lemmon-Warde (Year 9) and Asher Brownrigg (Year 8) did our school proud by battling against 12 of the top tennis schools in the nation to finish in 4th place. A gruelling schedule of matches saw our boys on court for up to 9 hours of play in a day. We posted wins over Prince Alfred College (SA), Westfield Sports High School (NSW), St Augustine’s College (NSW) and Palm Beach Currumbin State High School (QLD) in pool matches in the opening days.

The campaign overall was a great experience for a talented young side, who competed beautifully as a team against the best. To cap off the experience, team captain and graduating senior Arjun, was honoured with the sportsmanship award of the championships, voted by all players in the competition. Congratulations to Arjun and his team. Special thanks to team managers Mr Jay Pike and Mr Nick Brownrigg, who rode the highs and lows with our players on and off court.