All-Abilities Schools State Championship
Warringa Park are the first winners of the All-Abilities Schools State Championship!
Warringa Park School has won the newly created 2017 All-Abilities School Bowls State Championship at Darebin City Bowls Club.
Warringa Park, who comes from the Northern Special Schools Sports Association (NSSSA), won the trophy ahead of the seven other schools who participated on the day.
The School All-Abilities competition was played for the first time between the winners of the NSSSA Competition (held for 3 weeks in November) and the Southern Special Schools Sports Association (SSSSA) who held a one-day competition in June. The competition is a new format for the All-Abilities Bowls program previously run with RMIT University.
After these competitions, the following schools made it to the State Final:
Warringa Park School (Hoppers Crossing) NSSSA
Ashwood School (Ashwood) SSSSA
Yarra Ranges SDS (Mount Evelyn) SSSSA
Broadmeadows SDS (Broadmeadows) NSSSA
Concord School (Bundoora) NSSSA
Naranga School (Frankston) SSSSA
Bulleen Heights School (Bulleen) NSSSA
Jackson School (St.Albans) NSSSA
In the State Final, schools participated in a circuit of six activities from the Junior Jack Attack equipment including ‘Hoops’, ‘Beat the Goalie’, ‘In the Zone’, ‘Roll to a Target’, ‘Bowls Footy’ & ‘Grand Canyon’. After practicing the six activities for an hour, the participants had a short break and then played each activity for five minutes, scoring points for their school.
After the six activities had concluded, each school divided their total points by the number of students participating.
The winners were Warringa Park School, with Ashwood School the runners up.
Congratulations to Warringa Park School for winning the inaugural trophy, which was presented by Australian Representative Bowler, Lucas Protopapas.
Bowls Victoria would like to thank both Sam Ditty (SSSSA) and John Candusso (NSSSA) for their support in getting involved with Bowls in 2017 and assisting us in creating a pathway for All-Abilities Schools to play in a State Final.
Additionally, a big thank you to the bowling clubs who assisted our All-Abilities Schools Events this year:
Darebin City Bowls Club
Ashburton Bowls Club
Donvale Bowls Club
Deer Park Bowls Club
City of Frankston Bowls Club
There is now a pathway in Bowls for all-abilities schools to reach a state final. If your school is keen on getting involved with bowls, please give Sean a call on 98617109 or e-mail seano@bowlsvic.org.au.