International Women's Day and Haileybury Sport
In March, we celebrated International Women’s Day, a global event that provides a valuable moment to reflect on the shared progress that has been made in creating opportunities for women and girls in our communities. At Haileybury, we are proud of the strides taken in recent years to strengthen and celebrate girls’ sport across the College. From participation to performance and leadership, our students and staff continue to shape a vibrant and inspiring sporting culture.
From a participation perspective, the range of sports on offer in the program continues to evolve in order to ensure we have opportunities for all girls to meaningfully engage with sport. There is the traditional APS / AGSV sports such as basketball, netball, badminton, softball, swimming, water polo, diving, hockey, touch, tennis, soccer, cross country, athletics and volleyball, where we continue to wear the Hearts colours with pride at all levels. In amongst these, there are the sports that Haileybury is taking a leadership position in driving forward such as cricket and football, where we have advocated for premiership status and sustainable participation pathways. Then there are emerging sports such as aerobics, dance, Pilates, equestrian, climbing, sailing, core body conditioning and triathlon that have offered strong appeal to girls at the School. In continuing to evolve our approach, last year we introduced a number of mixed sport opportunities such as mixed netball, NFL Flag and AFL 9s, where both boys and girls participate in the same team, driving the importance that advocacy from boys can have in enhancing the profile and inclusivity of girls’ sport.
From a performance perspective, at the time of writing, the Girls First teams were sitting on top of the ladder in badminton, cricket and softball, and continue to be extremely competitive in tennis, touch and volleyball, where we have extremely young squads. (We are also obviously the reigning APS Athletics champions.) This summer will be the first that there are Semi Finals and Finals in Girls First sport (a first for APS sport), and another area where the School has been extremely vocal in advancing. In winter, we will once again see a stand-alone scheduling of the first round of girls’ sport which will provide opportunities for girls of all ages to go and see the stars of our First teams compete in their magenta colours.
From an individual perspective, congratulations to the Girls School Sports Captain, Bhanu (Year 12 Keysborough) who scored her first century in the First Cricket team. We also are extremely proud to share that Maddie (Pangea) has been selected in the New Zealand U/17 World Cup Basketball squad, which is an outstanding achievement.
Finally, we all know the importance that coaching plays in inspiring and developing young players. In this context, we are so fortunate to have wonderful female role models leading a number of our sports. Melissa Barbieri is the most capped Matilda in history and does a wonderful job leading our girls’ soccer program. Leah Percy coaches our Boys First Touch team, who at the time of writing are sitting two games clear on top of the ladder. These boys, also supported by Team Manager Samantha Braun, are the epitome of Haileybury sporting excellence, competing on the pitch, but always respecting the referees, opposition and the sport. We are also fortunate to have Jacqui O’Neill, a Head of House staff member, who is also the Assistant Coach of the Australian Women’s U17 Basketball Team. Jacqui is the Head of Girls Basketball, as well as First Team coach.
In this context, I am extremely excited to share the news that Nicole Callinan has been appointed into a new role designed to support the development of girls’ football at Haileybury.
Nicole is a highly credentialled player and coach of girls’ football. She played AFLW with the Western Bulldogs, including a premiership in 2018, and has held a number of roles with the elite AFLW program across both coaching and player development, with Carlton, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs.
Nicole is extremely passionate about player development and is excited about playing a role working with Haileybury girls at all levels.
The newly created role will include Assistant Coach to the Girls 1st team, as well as driving the broader development of girls across both Junior and Middle School. She will also play a role in identifying elite players and preparing them for the AFLW draft.
For me, there has been no better illustration of girls’ sport at Haileybury than earlier this month when our Girls First Netball team played an exhibition match against the Johor Jewels, the Crown Princess of Johor's professional team that plays in the Malaysia Super Netball League; a team that includes former Australia diamond superstar Gretel Bueta and New Zealand Silver Fern Laura Langman.
To be asked to participate in their program is a wonderful recognition of our netballers and the work that our coaching partner NETFIT has put in over the years to build their skills and abilities. It is also an amazing opportunity for our younger girls to see professional netballers in action, with buses coming from all four campuses transporting students to come and cheer on our Hearts heroes. The timing of this game presented itself as a real gift to our school community, given it was the week of International Women’s Day, and occurs during Ramadan. The Johor Jewels are largely composed of Muslim women who were keen to demonstrate their abilities as high performance professional female athletes, while observing the customs and requirements of their religious routine. As we know, representation and visibility in sport is extremely important, and this match offered so much to many of our Muslim students, particularly those young girls in the Netball program; demonstrating our care and commitment to championing diversity in sport.
While we celebrate this progress, we are equally excited about what lies ahead. Our focus remains on creating an inclusive, supportive and safe sporting environment where every girl at Haileybury can thrive, compete and develop a lifelong love of sport, and I look forward to going on this journey with you all.
Matthew Dwyer
Head of Sport (One Haileybury)
