Sport Calendar for 2009

Over the last few years there has an ongoing discussion of the merits of a slight adjustment to the sport calendar of schools in order to achieve some important objectives. After considerable discussion it has been agreed by a group of schools, including Hilton College, that this new arrangement will be implemented next year. Most of the schools involved in this group are those against whom we have traditionally competed on the sportsfield.

Now that commitment to this restructuring of the sports seasons is well-advanced, as a result of planning which schools have already done for 2009, it is safe to advise you that the arrangements as set out below will be in place during next year.

In essence the adjustment is merely to start sport seasons 3 weeks earlier in each season. This will affect things as follows:

1. Summer sports will end after the first weekend after half-term in Term 1 (28 February 2009). This will give us 5 weekend fixtures at this stage of the year.
    

2. Winter sports will begin in the second week after half-term in Term 1 (2 March 2009). There will be two weekend fixtures before the end of Term 1.
    

3. Winter sports will end at the end of Term 2 (25 June, 2009). With those fixtures in Term 1 this will give us our usual 11 weekend fixtures during the season.
    

4. Soccer and Athletics and those sports which have accompanied these two in the past will begin at the start of Term 3 (20 July, 2009) and will end after the second weekend after half-term in Term 3 (5 September, 2009). This will give us 6 weekend fixtures.
    

5. Summer sports will begin again during the third week after half-term in Term 3 (7 September, 2009). They will continue until the end of the year (14 November, 2009). This will give us 7 weekend fixtures during this period of the year. In total this will give us 12 weekend fixtures during the summer season.

This arrangement will give us some significant benefits:

1. We will avoid the high-risk injury period which has been associated with winter sports (especially rugby) at the start of Term 3 after the long June lay-off (over the holiday period). Whilst there is a similar period over the Easter break boys are far more likely to do some training during this period with the excitement of the new season upon them and teams still being very much in flux after only two fixtures. They will also not be as tired as they have been in June after the major part of the season had been completed at that stage.
    

2. Winter sports teams going to the Easter Festivals (or on tour at Easter time) will be able to be better prepared for these, having had more focused training time and some fixtures beforehand. Unfortunately, these Festivals are no longer pre-season preparation periods but have become very competitive, high-profile occasions which necessitate a better degree of preparation. This applies in both hockey and rugby.
    

3. Summer sports teams going to Michaelmas holiday Festivals and Tournaments will also be far better prepared. The same applies here as already mentioned in point 2, above.
    

4. Soccer, Athletics and the associated sports in Term 3 will have a meaningful period allocated to them and will no longer be squashed into the latter half of Term 3 when lots of other activity also occurs.

As one can see a number of valuable benefits accrue as a result of this shift. Obviously, as with all things, there are some negatives but the group of schools shifting to this arrangement believes that the positives will significantly outweigh the negatives.

This has hopefully set the scene for you in terms of these changes which we trust will prove to be a positive shift for our schools.

Kind regards.

MARK PERRETT
Director of Sport

Rugby and Hockey Fixtures 2010
 

Term 1

6 March: Hockey and Rugby practices
13 March: vs St Charles
20 March: vs Michaelhouse

Term 2

17 April: vs Westville
24 April: vs Kearsney
1 May: vs DHS
8 May: Hockey vs Clifton; Rugby vs George Campbell
15 May: vs Maritzburg College
22 May: vs King Edward VII School (h)
29 May: vs St Alban's (a)
5 June : vs Michaelhouse