Historic win for Mary MacKillop Catholic College
FOOTBALL: Drawing on the magic shown by the Sydney Roosters a day earlier, Mary MacKillop Catholic College’s young football team created history on Monday night.
The senior girls team added their college’s first ever piece of silverware to the trophy cabinet after a thrilling clash with St Ursula’s at Clive Berghofer Stadium.
The first half of the Toowoomba Football League Schoolgirls final was a tense affair with the side’s going into the break at 0-0.
The second half was a much different affair though with four goals shared between the sides – three of which were scored in the final eight minutes of normal time.
Little separated the two sides in extra before Mary MacKillop were able to break away to seal a 4-2 win.
Mary MacKillop coach and school assistant principal Kris Naiker was in awe of his team’s perseverance and resilience.
“It was more than a soccer game for the girls,” he said.
“They wanted to leave a legacy for future Mary MacKillop girls to aspire to.
“I recently listened to a speech by Yasmin Mogahed, a psychologist and motivational speaker who specialises in personal development.
“She said ‘resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going’.
“Our girls soccer team experienced exactly this.
“They kept going and that’s what learning is, both in and out of the classroom.”
The win is a special one for the squad who first competed in 2019.
Consisting of Year 7 students, the team entered the under-15s competition and were winless in their first season.
The next season wasn’t much better with the team recording just the one win.
Naiker first formed the team as a way to build positive relationships and to connect with students he didn’t teach at the time.