Uni games prep gives Eagles good grounding
Avondale will send a team of about 70—its largest—to the Eastern University Games in Newcastle at the end of the semester.
The students will represent the Eagles in seven teams across seven sports—basketball, futsal, indoor cricket, netball, squash, tennis and touch football. They plan to not just compete but to be competitive, with preparation beginning earlier this year—the Eagles held a training weekend over the first weekend in April before finalising the teams, which are now practicing at least once a week.
“We’re not going to Uni Games to drink but to take our games seriously,” says Eagles co-captain and education student Jordan Hutchinson. “We’ll play fairly, but we’ll be playing to win.”
A team spirit is developing more quickly than at previous games, which may boost performance, adds Lucy Johnsen, the other co-captain. “If you feel you have support from a close group of people, you want to do your best for them.”
That spirit is bringing off- and on-campus students from across academic disciplines and campuses together—nurses from the Sydney campus are travelling to the Lake Macquarie campus to train. To maintain the spirit, the students will use the cottages on the Avondale Estate as their base during the games.
Avondale’s improved performance at its second games this past year saw the college of higher education finish third in per capita rankings. The men’s basketball, indoor cricket and touch football teams all qualified for but were narrowly beaten in the semifinals, with the former and latter remaining undefeated through pool games.
The games this year will feature about 3000 participants from universities and TAFEs across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory competing in up to 20 different sports over four days (July 6-10). The top three teams in the basketball and netball competitions qualify for division one competitions at the Australian University Games in Sydney in September. The men’s touch football team from Avondale has already qualified thanks to its division two gold medal win at the Australian University Games this past year.
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