Sport News
2020 Sportsperson of the Year Award
2020 has been a challenging year with Covid 19 putting an abrupt end to the majority of school-based representative sporting events. Despite this, we have had many athletes continue with their sporting endeavours outside of school and achieve outstanding results.
This year, we have extended the criteria for the 2020 Sportsperson of the Year Award to include sporting achievements outside of school-based pathways. We had over 40 nominations for this prestigious award. The 12 finalists (in no particular order) are:
Finalist 1: Kalani Vella
Kalani was a member of the U14 Southern NSW Futsal team who were finalists in the Australian Futsal Association Nationals in Sydney. He was selected in Australian team to tour China. Kalani was also selected on individual merit by the Wollongong Wolves Football Club to train and play with the U15 Dutch Eredivisie team Excelsior S.B.V in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He is in the Wollongong Wolves U15 team, playing in Division 1 Youth NSW National Premier League. This is Kalani’s 7th consecutive representative football season at this level. He has been retained by Wollongong Wolves FC for the U16 team in 2021.
Finalist 2: Sharleece Coan
Sharleece placed 2nd in the NSW State Junior Go Karting titles, 3rd in the ACT and 4th in the Southern Stars Series. She placed 4th in the Australian Karting Association Titles. Sharleece was 1st in the Wollongong Club Championship Junior Heavy and 1st female on podium Australian Karting Association.
Finalist 3: Tayissa Buchanan
Tayissa was a member of the St Joseph’s Intermediate girls triathlon team that competed at the NSW All Schools Triathlon Championships. Racing up an age group, she ran the fastest time of all the competitors in the NSWCCC division. Tayissa is the Athletics NSW U15 girls champion and 4th in the state in 400m.
Last week, she won the NSW All Schools U14 girls 800m and 1500m events and placed 3rd in the 400m.
Tayissa was selected in the Little Athletics U15 National Camp with only 120 athletes selected in Australia across athletics. Tayissa also came equal 8th in the Athletics NSW Short Course Cross Country. She was selected for the Illawarra academy of sport Lonestar Scholarship Program. During 2020 Tayissa has run national qualifying times to allow her to compete and represent NSW in 2021 at the Australian Juniors National Championships in April. Tayissa times qualify her to compete one age above her current age bracket. Tayissas races at interclub level for ANSW have earnt her spots in the womens open A Race for both the 400, 800 and 1500 enabling her to run against australian adult representatives.
Finalist 4: Tahlia Dole
Tahlia is a professional cyclist. At the start of 2020, she was signed to the Veris Elite Womens national racing team. She was selected as part of this team to race in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Tahlia has resigned with Veris Elite Womens Racing for 2021. Tahlia was selected for the NSW State Cycling Track Team for the Australian Championships. She was the NSW 2020 Points Race Bronze Medallist and won another bronze medal in the U19 Australian Criterium Championship. Tahlia was a member of the St Joseph’s Senior Girls Triathlon team that won the NSWCCC All Schools Triathlon Championships.
Tahlia was due to defend her NSW road and time trial titles in October but fell ill and had to have surgery. Tahlia took this set back in her stride and showed resilience in recovering from injury, completing her HSC and training and racing locally and in Sydney against adult men.
Finalist 5: Sienna Bourke
Sienna is an outstanding Dragon Boat paddler. She is a member of The Sydney Zodiacs, she travels to Pyrmont twice a week for training on the water and trains off water locally. Sienna has competed in regattas including state and national events, the team earning themselves the title of the best junior team in Australia. Sienna and her team qualified to compete in the Club Crew World Championships in Aix Le Bain France paddling against the best in the world.
Finalist 6: Rhianna Boag
Rhianna was awarded the South Coast Group 7s Junior Referee of The Year Award for 2020 and best Senior Grand Final Team 2020. Rhianna is part of the NextGen Referee Development Performance Squad. Rhianna has refereed Oztag Seniors/Juniors, Ladies Tackle , Ladies Senior League Tag and most recently the merged competition for Ladies Seniors and U15-U17s November 9s tackle competition. Rhianna was invited to referee the Senior NSW titles Oztag at Coffs Harbour.
Finalist 7: Robert Frew
Robert made the NSW U15 State Indoor Hockey Squad. He played in the Sydney metro competition which is the highest competition in NSW for his age. He also made it into the North West Sydney under 15’s A team.
Finalist 8: Matt Leembruggen
Matt is the Wollongong Diocese Swimming U15 Male Age Champion. He qualified to compete at the NSWCCC Swimming Championships in 5 events. Matt qualified for 3 individual events plus relays in the National Age Swimming Championships. In state rankings, he rates top 25 or better and nationally he rates top 50 or better by age. Matt qualified for the NSW Senior State Swimming Championships and will be swimming in 9 individual events plus relays. Matt has been awarded a scholarship with the Illawarra Academy of Sport for Swimming.
Finalist 9: Grace Pomery
Grace represented St Joseph’s at the NSWCCC All Schools Triathlon Championships. In the
Wollongong Australia Day Aquathon she won gold in the Parent/Child Team Combo.
Grace was the first female out of 70 entrants in the Wollongong Splash and Dash (400m swim/ 3km run). She was selected in the NSW Merit Cross Country Team to compete at the Australian titles in Adelaide. Grace represnted St Joseph’s at the All School State Athletics in the 800m and 1500m events. She has already qualified to compete at Nationals in 2021 in the 800m.
Finalist 10: Molly Jewiss
Molly was selected to represent Australia in acrobatics to compete in Switzerland.
Finalist 11: Charlee Buckman
Charlee was selected in the 2020 Hockey NSW U13 Girls Stars Indoor team that played in the Australian Indoor Hockey Championships.
Finalist 12: Zali Schofield
Zali was selected in the 2020 Hockey NSW U13 Girls Lions Indoor team that played in the Australian Indoor Hockey Championships.
As you can see the field of finalists for the 2020 St Joseph’s Sportsperson of the Year Award is exceptional. Every one of these finalists would be a worthy recipient of this award. It was an extremely difficult decision for the panel of judges to make.
I would like to announce that our St Joseph’s Sportsperson of the Year is Tahlia Dole. Congratulations Tahlia and all the best for your future sporting achievements.
Tahlia played an important part in the game, catching out Stars captain and top-scoring ODI batter Meg Lanning. Well done Tahlia!
Key Dates for Term 1 Representative Sport:
| Date | Sport |
| February 15 | U13's, U15's Open Boys Touch |
| February 18 | Year 7-11 Tennis |
| February 24 | School Swimming Carnival |
| March 1 | U13's, U15's & Open Girls Touch |
| March 12 | Diocesan Swimming Carnival |
| March 16 | School Cross Country Carnival |
| March 17 | U15 & Open Boys Rugby League Trial |
| March 19 | Boys and Girls Football |
| March 29 | NSWCCC Swimming |
2021 NSWCCC Sport Registrations
There are opportunities for students to progress through NSW Catholic School pathways to represent in their chosen sport. The diagrams below explain the pathways available to students:
Nominations open on Feb 1 2021 for individual students to nominate for the following sports:
- Boys 19 yrs Cricket (closing date 3rd Feb)
- Girls Cricket (closing date 10th Feb)
- Softball (closing date 12 Feb)
- Boys 15 yrs Cricket (closing date 18th Feb)
- Rugby League (closing date 19th Feb)
- Tennis (closing date 22nd Feb)
- Golf (closing date 25th Feb)
- Baseball (closing date 26th Feb)
- Volleyball (closing date 5th March)
- Waterpolo (closing date 11th March)
- Triathlon (closing date 15th March)
It is the responsibility of parents to register their child for these selection trials. This needs to be done on the Catholic Schools NSW Sport website: www.csnsw.sport
Below is an information sheet to guide parents/carers through this process. Please note that 2021 Sport registrations for NSWCCC will open on 1 February 2021.
2021 Swimming Carnival
The School Swimming Carnival will be held on Wednesday 24 February 2021 at Albion Park Pool. This event will be for competitors only.