Diving into fun day
By Ella Stephens, Year 9, St Andrew’s Catholic College
ON February 13, the middle year students of St Andrew’s Catholic College took several buses out to Tobruk Pool for their first sporting event of the year, the Interhouse Swimming Carnival.
Within the first few steps you took off the bus and through the gates, excitement buzzed from Ozanam House on the far left of the bus through to Hollows House on the right.
Even those who weren’t swimming showed their spirit, whether it was a colourful Hawaiian shirt, faces painted from forehead to chin in bright zinc or just soaking up the atmosphere the day provided.
The 2018 college house captains (both middle and senior years), dressed from head to toe in their house colours, stood at the front of crowds encouraging us to cheer for our college houses.
By 9.20am, the first round of races had begun, starting with freestyle and ending with butterfly.
Speakers were blasting music, friends were cheering swimmers and competitors from each age group waited eagerly, yet nervously, for their year to be called.
Those students not taking a dive into the 50m pool could participate in an activity which was being run for anyone wanting a swim, earning their college house crucial points that could contribute to a win.
The amazing staff of the Tobruk Pool canteen were definitely the highlight of the carnival for some, with delicious foods and drinks being served over the whole day, ranging from sour sprays to sandwiches. The smell of hot chips was definitely dominant throughout the day with stacks of containers being found around the grandstand at the post-carnival clean-up.
Of course, the house spirit contest brought out everyone’s true colours, consisting of loud cheers, Mr Hoff’s whistle, and stamping feet, which surprisingly didn’t bring down the grandstand.
Themes were set for each house, “Spartans” for Chisholm, “Green Machines” for Ozanam, “Pirates and Pilots” for Mackillop and “Hawaiian” for Hollows, although the Hawaiian shirts were popular no matter what college house you belonged you.
As the age-group races drew to a close, the relays began. Starting with the house v house races using their fastest freestyle swimmers, followed by a house captain v teacher race that kicked an uproar of excitement back into everyone’s systems as the day started to end. It was great to see so many people stepping up and getting involved, even if they didn’t take part in outside of school swimming, so just having a go was a key part of the day.
Of course, the day wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing venue, so a big thanks to Tobruk Memorial Pool for helping create memories and swimming records.
Overall, after this day, I’m sure everyone is looking forward to what the next sports days bring and that parents were grateful that their kids slept well that night.