On Tuesday afternoon, 16 excited girls set off for the State Soccer Finals at Valentine Sports Park. The venue is the home of Football NSW where many big games are played and the girls were amazed to be stepping into such an arena. PCS were drawn in Pool 1 with Northern Beaches Christian School, Inaburra and Mamre Anglican School (the eventual winners of the tournament). The girls battled hard but took a while to get used to playing on a synthetic surface for the first time. The larger schools had many talented and experienced players but our girls continued with great determination. Despite not scoring a goal in open play, the girls demonstrated great teamwork, defending en masse to try and stop their more experienced opponents scoring more goals. Our girls provided the sportsmanship moment that many tournaments long for, showing great concern for an injured opponent and applauding her when she recovered and exited the field. This alerted many spectators and officials to the field where many commented on the sportsmanship shown by Parkes Christian School.
The girls played a fourth game, against Tyndale and after a back and forth nil all draw, the game went to penalty shoot out. This was a new experience for the girls and they put two penalties away but the other two were saved by the opposition keeper, with Tyndale winning the shootout 3-2.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable trip with the girls highlighting their camaraderie and wonderful senses of humour. It was a huge learning experience and I believe they will become better players due to this trip. The players’ player of the match was our wonderful captain, Briley Farrell, who ran herself ragged every game and was always encouraging her teammates. The tournament organisers asked for assistant referees (or linesmen) to help out in other games and Ruby Hodson-Smith willingly stepped up to learn and volunteer her skills to this task. I hope the girls have many happy memories of our expedition and will see that it won’t take that much more training to step up to the level of their opponents in Sydney. Well done girls for representing our school so well.
