Year 7 Football SBSJ boys represented

their rugby club West

Bowling, in the U12s in

the Yorkshire Cup. Jude

Maddison and Sean

Coughlan played an

absolutely fantastic game. The

boys showed that they could not

only score tries, but could read

their opponents and know just

when to tackle. Jude was named

player of the match. Final score:

Westbowling 28 v 10 Fryston

December Sporting Roundup 2019

Hanson 0 v 21 SBSJ

This was their first game

of the year and our boys

played as a team not only

scoring 21 tries but also

defending their own try

line throughout the game,

with an outstanding

performance from Jayemm

Oladipupo.

Our Yr7B team took on Hanson A

team. The students played extremely

well, with Daniel making two world

class saves and Lewis Pemberton scoring a

brace. For most of the students, it was their first

time playing for school and they played with pride,

passion and aspiration to defeat an A team.

Unfortunately, with 1 minute to go, we conceded

from a corner, so the result was a 4-4 draw and the

B team still awaits its first victory of the season.

Goal scorers: Joseph Lunn (1), Jacob Hamilton (1)

and Lewis Pemberton (2) and the man of

match was Daniel Rayner.

Y7

Merry Christmas from all the Staff at SBSJ

Tuesday 03rd December was the U18 English

Schools Water Polo Championship first round

held at Manchester Aquatic Centre. Going into the group we knew it was going be tough as

there were 5 teams. The top 2 teams go through to the ESSA Championship. 3rd and 4th to the

ESSA Plate competition and 5th to the ESSA Bowl competition.

Placing 5th means we have been relegated to the English Schools Bowl competition, which is the

3rd tier of Water Polo. It is the first time in our history to ever be in this division/competition

and unfortunately it is probably exactly where we deserved to be.

Having lost our most influential player in Jastin Barrientos and also our centre back in

Stefan Giangregorio to injury it was always going to be tough. However, I felt we had more than

enough within the squad to match some of the opponents in our group and at least keep our

record of never getting relegated to the Bowl. A special thank you must go to Adam Zdolyny

who came out of retirement to go in goal and if not for him it would have been even

more embarrassing.

The senior players in the group need to reflect on these results and take from this a steep

learning curve. It highlighted something that will affect them not only in their sporting life but

in all walks of life and more importantly in their

immediate future here at school with their

studies. If you're not willing to put the time in

training/preparing then how do you ever expect

to achieve positive outcomes?

As we returned to school and went through our

team debriefing we vowed to redeem ourselves

by winning the English Schools Bowl

competition.

U18 First Round

1st - Bolton School

2nd - St Ambrose College

3rd - Kings Grantham

4th - St Peter's, York

5th - SBSJ

One week after our U18 Boys had their first round, which as we know did not go to plan! Some

of the U15's were at that tournament and were determined not let the same thing happen again!

SBSJ 0 - 6 MGS, Player of the Match - Lilly Pryce

SBSJ 8 - 1 St Edward’s, Player of the Match - Dane Simora

SBSJ 3 - 6 Bolton School, Player of the Match - Miguel Arevalo

Player of the Tournament - Amelia Brooksbank

Finishing 3rd means we are going to the English Schools Plate Semi Final next half term.

Something we can happy with. Taking into consideration last weeks disappointment.

Generally speaking I was really pleased with the way all our students played and their attitude

going into each match. The first game is always our toughest as we struggle in every age group

to get a grips of the size of pool and playing a match situation, and taking into account this

team have not had a game together since last April!

MGS had some big powerful boys amongst their ranks, which was the deciding factor. However,

I did feel we could have done better in parts, which later reflects in our next two performances.

Amelia Brooksbank and Lilly Pryce were our two outstanding performers, with being the only

two players to record any steals. This reflects both of their characters when playing as they fight

until the very end. Lilly also managed to gain a penalty with one of her brilliant drives into the

opposition area, something she had being doing most of the game. Unfortunately we missed.

The St Edward's game was a lot different as we matched them in size and swimming ability, and

it was our experience and determination to right our wrongs that gave us the convincing win.

Every player stepped up their game. The player of the match could have gone to any one of our

players in truth. However, I felt Dane Simora was deserving of the award with his constant

drives being the catalyst for most of our goals.

With the win against St Edward’s our confidence was boosted, even though our final match was

against Bolton School who in the end had won all 3 matches. My message was the same as the

previous 2 games. Press hard in defence and don't give them an inch. When in attack be brave

and make drives into their 6 metre which had given us so much joy against St Edwards as well

as when Lilly did it against a much superior Manchester Grammar team.

The performance against Bolton was arguably our best. Even though we lost the match, the way

everyone fought for every ball and pressed the Bolton boys was a joy to watch. In our first

match against MGS we only recorded 3 steal from our two girls. This game we recorded 10

steals from 6 different players. This gave us a platform to then go attack and our willingness to

make drives into the opposition area meant we could give the a really good game. Our result

against them was the best out of all the teams, with conceding the least amount of goals and

scoring the most! It also reiterates my point in the year 7 match report, about how we manage

to close the gap. Something I will be stressing to our young rising stars. I awarded the player of

the match award to Miguel Arevalo who asked to be put centre forward, which is the hardest

position. He battled with their centre backs tremendously creating space for others to make

drives in which all 3 of our goals came from. Amelia Brooksbank was awarded the player of the

tournament. She made a total of 11 steals, 2 assists and scored 2 goals. The best stats out of all

our players.

I would also like to thank Mr Parker, for stepping in as

team manager, travelling with the boys and getting them

ready for our first match. This also gave me the

opportunity to stay in Manchester with Lilly and

Amelia who then had a 2 1/2 hour training session. It's

the first time I've seen them train there in a long time and

to see how they've grown in confidence and are now well

established members of the City of Manchester WP filled

me with great pride. Coach Mr Matthew Wright

Final Placings

1st - Bolton School

2nd - Manchester Grammar

3rd - SBSJ

4th - St Edwards School

On Monday 09th December saw the our U12 'mixed' Water Polo team

travel to play Bolton Boys U12's. This was our first match against

another year 7 team, which proved to be a much tougher test than

Boltons U11's. The size difference and swimming ability was evident

from the word go which made a difficult afternoon.

Bolton U12 Boys 20 - 1 SBSJ U12 'Mixed'

Player of the Match - Oliver Brooksbank

As the scoreline suggests it was quite a dominant display from the Bolton boys. However, what

the scoreline does not reflect is our teams spirit and determination which shone throughout.

It also doesn't tell you that we were awarded 3 penalties and managed to get 2 'man-up'

advantages, as well as getting into some a number of good attacking positions. However we

didn't score from those situations. Something that we can easily work on in training and with

more experience we can put those types of chances away.

The one thing I will say, which I stressed to the players on the way home is that now they know

the standard that we want to try and achieve. If they keep up to their training we will bridge the

gap as we always do!

Crawshaw Academy 3 v 5 SBSJ

Wednesday 4th December. A really positive result considering that we had 5

(five!!) players absent from school on Wednesday due to illness and we had

already lost three other players due to injury and ineligibility. Just 5 mins before

we had planned to set off we had nine players available from the published

team-sheet. I had just called the opposition teacher to say that we wouldn't be coming and

whilst I was telling the bus driver he had the afternoon off, two other lads popped up and said

they would play to give us a full eleven players! A mad dash to find shin-pads and boots from

lost property, two phone calls to parents for permission and a call to the attendance officer to

update SIMS and we were on our way, just 15 minutes behind schedule!

You may be aware that 'aspiration' is our currently learning muscle focus. This was clearly

evident as there was only positive chat on the team bus on route to the game. I asked the

'senior' players to look after some of our Y8 stand-ins and we patched a formation together,

even though we didn't have a recognised central midfielder in the 'squad'! It was our Y8 player,

Victor, that offered to play in the centre of the pitch against older opposition; aspiration indeed!

Worried that we were going to be in for a tough afternoon we started with a more defensive

formation than usual and I asked the boys to 'play long' and look to use the pace of Sahil.

Anyway, they ignored me and we played some beautiful football with Victor and Malakai pulling

the strings in midfield and Awaal and Israel dribbling out from the back. Within 10 minutes we

were 3-0 up with Malakai, Max and Sahil scoring - all really well-worked goals.

Although Crawshaw pulled one back, it was very much against the run of play and I was so

impressed with our first-half performance. Lewis scored our fourth and it was looking

comfortable at half time. My team talk was full of praise, however, I warned against being

complacent and insisted that we needed to remain focussed in the first 10 mins of the second

half. So inevitably, Crawshaw scored an early second-half goal and their tails were up!!

The second half was a dogged display of hard graft in defence and swift counter-attacking

(and poor finishing!) in attack. Crawshaw dominated the possession and territory as we visibly

tired. Corner after corner came into our penalty area and Franc and Nana (the smallest players

on the pitch by some distance) put their bodies on the line to rescue us on more than one

occasion. Crawshaw then scored

twice in 5 minutes to leave the

game finely balanced at 3-4.

Three smart saves from George in

the last 10 minutes preserved our

lead and with 30 seconds left, Sahil

was clattered in the box, dusted

himself off, smashed in the penalty,

and confirmed our place in the

final.

Not sure who awaits us in the final

but it'll be a tough decision on who

to select for the game. I might have

to select a squad of 20!

Mr Paul Cheetham

West Yorkshire Semi Final