Last week, seven CHAC teams travelled to Coolangatta to compete in Volleyball Queensland's 2020 Beach Schools Cup. Building on the development of our students during the past year, this promised to be another successful tournament for students to compete in.

Attending the technical meeting early on the first morning, we could see the enormity of this tournament, with 355 teams, over 1000 students and 41 courts that stretched the entirety of the beach. The kids were nervous but very keen to match it with the other schools.

The start of competition saw perfect playing conditions of a sunny day and light winds. In the first two rounds, we saw convincing wins for all teams and everyone played with confidence. The competition was hard; many teams consisted of seasoned beach volleyball players who have played on the Queensland Beach Volleyball Tour or Queensland teams, but our students fought hard and matched them in skills. From this stage of the tournament, we had some great battles and wins, and also a few close losses.

I was very proud of our students- they learnt so much over the weekend about playing beach volleyball and adapted their indoor skills to play. Everyone embraced their own team and really showed how it takes more than one person on the court to win games. It was great to see how they constantly supported other team members within our College team, cheering them on, and doing many duties on the last day that we weren’t scheduled to do.

The students' ability to work as a team was so prominent on the Monday when the playing conditions turned inclement with torrential rain and forceful winds. Where some school teams imploded because of these conditions, our students worked through the frustrations of performing in these weather conditions and won thanks to the excellent results from all of our teams.

Results from the tournament:

Gold medal

Intermediate Boys Pairs Division 2 – Nathan Kilner and Nick Greer

Intermediate Girls Pairs Division 2 – Lina Mueller and Zali Stratford-George

Silver medal

Junior Girls fours Division 2 - Ava Pitmann, Isabella Zarb, Maya Osman, Emma Kilner, Holly Clough

Well done to our other teams who just missed out on medals and were in the top half of the draw and fighting to the end.

Senior Girls Pairs Division 1: Yasmin Ward and Chloe Ryder

Intermediate Boys Pairs Division 2: Josh Jenkin and Zak Myles-Hawkins

Intermediate Girls Pairs Division 1: Amy Drought and Lily Chippendale

Junior Boys Fours Division 1: Sam Orford, Zack Axton, Carter Mangan,  Lachlan Zuideveld, Will Ngan, Toby Chippendale

Thank you!

A massive thank you to the parents and family who made this possible by getting our teams there, enduring the sun and icy rain, and then standing by the court to constantly support and cheer our teams on to their best.

All the very best to our students who are members of the Volleyball Queensland's junior beach program and are competing at the National Junior Beach Championships later in March.