Celebrating the Journey: The Importance of Participation, Learning, and Commitment in Sport

Dear Somerset Community,

Over the past couple of weeks, the College has enjoyed wonderful success in our APS competition! As a competitive person myself, there were moments on the sideline where I wasn’t really coping with how close the scores were! Somerset has built an incredible legacy of success in the sporting field, something I want to uphold and continue; a commitment to excellence and achieving personal success.

However, whilst the wins have been pleasing and we should celebrate, for me, the journey and the learning are just as valuable as the final result. I have always held the belief that sport needs to follow an important continuum from ‘participation to performance’. What I mean by this is, we value all aspects of sport. From the opportunity to get out there, train, turn up, be a part of a team and play with others for the simple joy of the game; right through to the opportunity to represent the College, region, state or beyond. Every part of this continuum is important, and each individual student might sit anywhere along the continuum and feel valued.

During my time at my previous school, I trained a number of teams for the Kokoda challenge, which I know Somerset participated in last weekend. In working toward the 48km challenge, I would always select the team that was not very ready or had never tried something like this before. Over the preparation period, with regular training, we reached the point where we were are able to complete the event in (very) good time and in fact, many of my teams returned to do it again in subsequent years! My own experience at school was quite different, I went to a school that valued some sports over others, it was an all-boys school and I was never a part of the highly valued sports or even the ‘Firsts’ of any sport. My school also didn’t teach me to enjoy physical activity for the love of it, and it took me many years, (and being married to a physiotherapist) to learn to love three sports, running, swimming and cycling, and I now enjoy all three. I have a strong belief that all sport is important, because of the benefit it bring to the individual and the community.

What I love about sport are those learning moments.

• Learning that as a team, you need to work with others who have different skills and enjoy different levels of success.
• Learning that not winning is OK. Learning to be humble, to deal with loss and failure, is a great life skill, so long as reflection happens and what we could do to improve next time.
• Learning to show commitment, even when we don’t feel like it. Turning up to training, despite the fact we might be tired, or the weather is inclement, or we have other things to do. This is such an important skill that sometimes things are tough, and we might be uncomfortable.
• Learning that doing something physical is good for us on so many levels. We know the research here.

I want to congratulate our staff and students for their ongoing commitment to giving of their best on and off the field. At the same time, I do want to encourage all of us to show our commitment to both physical activity and to sport, and to relish the benefits. Sport is such an integral part of our culture, and with this in mind, I am pleased to advise that Mr Lachlan Treacher, our current Head of Tennis, has accepted my offer to take on the Director of Sport from July this year. We’ve given Lachlan the challenge of focusing not just on the processes, but also the culture of participation and commitment in all of our programs.