The term commenced with stories from the boys' holiday break. Some of these stories were from Scotch tours to Indonesia, Europe, Melbourne and Sydney. Boys and staff shared their experiences that included living with a family in Indonesia, visiting ANZAC Cove as part of the European History tour, studying drama at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and rowing against the best school boy VIIIs from around Australia at the Sydney Olympic rowing course.
At each Senior School assembly, I share with boys and staff some of the remarkable boys' achievements across a broad range of pursuits. The holiday break just passed was no exception.
After winning the Head of the River, our First VIII were invited to compete in national selection trials. While Rowing Australia view this event as an opportunity to identify some of the best rowing talent in Australia, it presented as opportunity for the Scotch Boat Shed to test themselves against the best. Our first VIII represented both Scotch College and Western Australia and did so with remarkable success. In the final, our First VIII placed second and no doubt attracted a lot of interest from Rowing Australia officials.
Closer to home, our Pipe Band competed in All Schools' Pipe Band Competition against six other Pipe Bands, including PLC Sydney and a band from Malaysia. Of the six categories conducted that formed the competition, Scotch placed first in five, including Marshall Barrymore (Year 12, Brisbane) winning the best Drum Major. The Pipe Band followed up their success at the All Schools competition by winning their division in the State Pipe Band Championships.
Individual achievements were equally impressive with Alex Milligan (Year 12, Brisbane) swimming as part of the West Coast swim team's 4x100m Medley team that smashed the National record at the Australian Swimming Age Championships by a staggering 5 seconds. Alex also finished second in the Men's 17 to 18 years 100m and 200m Breaststroke events and went on to compete in the Men's Open 200m Breaststroke event at the Australian Swimming Championships where he qualified for the final. Alex is now making his mark in the open men's division in this country.
Aidan Read (Year 11, St Andrews) travelled to the Sepang International race circuit in Malaysia as the number one driver in Eurasia's Formula Masters team. After lengthy periods over seas testing and preparing in the early part of this year, he competed in the opening race of his first full competitive season. Aidan returned last week having placed fourth and two podium finishes in third place from 17 drivers.
Tim Andrew (Year 12, Ross) was a member of the winning Western Australian U/18 hockey team that competed in Melbourne over the holiday break. It is exciting and staggering to watch and learn of the boys' achievements at state and national competitions. There are no better examples of persistence, discipline, attention to detail and effort as attributes for success than those that demonstrated to us by own boys.
Finally, it was with pride of our history and the admiration for the values of this great College that I attended the Scotch and PLC ANZAC service last Friday. As a College that saw 475 old boys and teachers serve in WWI, I have no doubt that those in attendance will remember the sacrifices made by all who fought for this country.
Dr Rob McEwan
