For a tiny school, Barrington Public School has packed a lot of punch this year on the sporting field.
This year, Barrington put forth a mixed team in the PSSA competition for both hockey and soccer and also, earlier in the year, a netball team and individual representatives across hockey, cricket and tennis.
For months the team, which happens to be the same team for both hockey and soccer, have been training diligently in both pursuits.
In hockey, their teacher, Dave Keen has been prepping their campaign trail, while in soccer, John Hughes of the Gloucester Soccer Club, has put in a tremendous amount of his personal time to get the team up and going.
The team consisted of Dean Germon, Justin Battams, Lucas Pope, Elana Pope, Charli Macdonald, Kaitlyn Commons, Summer Edwards, Hamish and Hugo Laurie, Selina Denyer, Hayden Schultz, Michael Spooner, Luke Blanch and Sam Ellis.
The hockey and soccer matches were intertwined throughout the season, often with games being played in Newcastle one week, Gresford the next and then Taree somewhere in between.
But in the end, it was all worth it.
Both the hockey team and the soccer team did themselves very proud on the field and even in matches where they were down on the score board, they never gave up and came back to win all of their rounds in the region to go on to the State finals.
The hockey team was the first to compete in Narellan, coming up against 800 strong student schools such as Orange and Parkes. They quickly learned they were the little fish but this did not stop them from giving it a red hot go. In the end, the hockey team finished fourth in the State.
The soccer team were next to compete playing their finals down near Blacktown. Although they had Mr Hughes backing them all the way, it was not enough to overcome the larger schools. The soccer team also finished fourth in the State. A tremendous effort for a little school. A big thank you must go out to the parents who also put in a super effort transporting the students here there and everywhere. Without their support, the school would not have been as successful as they were.
