This year The Federation has supported a number of sports and here are some examples of the support it has provided in 2018;

Hockey

Thanks to the Guernsey Sports Federation the Under 14 & Under 18 Ladies' College Hockey teams were able to travel to England last term to represent the Channel Islands in the County and West of England hockey tournaments.

The U18 team travelled to Canford and had a great afternoon of hockey topped off with a win against Exeter College.

The U14 team travelled to Clifton in Bristol and enjoyed playing 5 different schools from across the West of England.

Teacher , Liz Dudin commented:

Without this funding the girls would not be able to play such competitive hockey. The teams really enjoy the experience of travelling over to the UK and getting used to travelling as a team, experiencing long bus journeys followed by some great hockey. With flights getting more expensive every year the funding enables the girls to embrace and enjoy this amazing opportunity which isn't possible on island.

Guernsey school girls hockey have been promoting and supporting the Guernsey Under 14 hockey team this year. The team have regularly trained on a Tuesday evening from 5.30-7pm with over 20 girls from 4 different schools being involved. The Guernsey squad benefited from picking up some new players from St Sampson's high school this year. Thanks to Katy Taylor from Guernsey hockey for holding coaching sessions at St Sampson's from mid September to December.

One of this seasons highlights for the U14's team was hosting Churchers' College from England.

A huge thank you to Guernsey Sporting Federation for helping to provide the funding to allow these sessions. All schools had the opportunity to participate in after school hockey tournaments; with funds also helping to provide all the winning teams with bespoke hockey medals.

Charlotte Bougourd & Hattie Clayton (U14 Hockey team) both enjoyed the experience:

'We really enjoyed travelling to England to play hockey as it is one of the few opportunities we have to play against other all girls teams in a competitive environment. It is also good to experience travelling and seeing the ability of other players from England'

Netball

Emma Brookes, Under 11 Panthers Team manager explains the approach taken for island netball with the under 11 Guernsey Panthers

‘This year over 60 girls trialled for selection for the Under 11 Guernsey Panthers resulting in selection of 18 Year 6 girls and 9 Year 5 girls for the island squad. We hold weekly training sessions where we look at team building, netball skills and developing an understanding of the game.

The girls have been given the opportunity to play some of the Year 7 school netball teams as well as a visiting Hoebridge Netball team. These opportunities mean the girls develop to an even higher level and can put into practice what we look at in training. All our Year 6 girls are invited to a UK day trip. We fly to Southampton and play Dreams Netball club and Weston Park in a tournament. For some of our girls, this is the first experience of travelling without family members. We also play in the Netball Inter Insular along with the other age groups. This is a great experience for our girls and allows them to see how they might progress in the sport as they get older. Parents have also commented that Under 11 Panthers is great for school transitions into Year 7.

We love to see the girls progress throughout the Year. The UK trip is invaluable to us as coaches but also to the girls to develop their knowledge of competition in the game. They can only get this experience by getting off the Island to play against girls of their own age.

Evie Linane and Emma Jarvis explains what the trip means for them:

“Our trip to the UK allowed us to experience playing different teams, which we don’t always have the opportunity to do on Island” Evie Linane (11)

“ The trip also challenged us to improve and gave us more learning experience” Emma Jarvis (11)

Rugby

Attending the Lord Jersey tournament is a regular feature of Guernsey Schools ruby calendar. Here La Mare De Carteret PE teacher, Seiorse Lee, explains what it means for Guernsey rugby

‘It was great to see again, for the second year running, two combined Guernsey Schools teams at this year’s Lord Jersey tournament held at the Jersey Rugby Club on the 21st March in near perfect rugby conditions.

The teams had been preparing for this tournament since the early start of November and through support from Only Fools and Donkeys were able to use the superb KGV playing facilities as their base for their training. Many hours on the field, in the gym and at team meetings were put in to make sure they were fully prepared and ready to give it their best on the day.

The Lord Jersey Cup allows students from all backgrounds, abilities and experiences of rugby to come together and work as a team. The Guernsey teams were made up of boys from the Islands Secondary Schools and Colleges and the competition was fierce from as soon as the first whistle blew.

Both teams had a fantastic experience of playing against some of the top Jersey rugby Schools. The Guernsey Schools second team showed great resilience in their defending on their try line and it was brilliant to see them create some fantastic scoring opportunities. The Guernsey first team were up against some very athletic and well drilled opposition and narrowly missed out on getting to the final which was contested between Les Quennevais and Victoria College in a thrilling final.

Without the continued support of The Guernsey School Sports Federation, Mourant Ozannes, Only Fools and Donkeys and Blue Islands this brilliant opportunity would not have been possible.

We look forward to selecting the squad again in 2019 and we are confident that the Lord Jersey Cup will be a stepping stone for some of the Islands most talented rugby players to go and play rugby and create some fantastic memories with their school peers.

Football

Both Senior and junior pupils have been supported with trips away.

Richard Sutton, Under 11 island team manger explains about the benefits of trips away;

This year’s main event was the Muratti match in Jersey which was a close competitive affair which was decided late on by a deflected Jersey goal. It felt like a home match due to all the parents who travelled with us and the team has a fantastic experience in preparation and at the match itself.

We also like to expand the team’s opportunities with match trips to places like the Staplewood Training Centre which belongs to Southampton FC. We went last year and hope to go back next year. There we played against 3 academy sides and got to play in their main training dome which has cameras to film training matches and watch action replays. We rounded off our day by going to St Mary’s to watch a Premier league game.

Next year we have also been invited to a tournament in France which we will begin fundraising for in the near future as there we could play against teams from mainland Europe as well as France itself.

Gothia Cup is the world’s largest and most international youth football tournament. Each year, around 1700 teams from 80 nations take part and they play 4500 games on 110 fields. Over the years Guernsey has been a regular attender at the event.

Andy Manning, St Sampson’s PE teacher explains its importance

“The Gothia Cup is a fantastic opportunity for any young footballer. As well as competing against the world’s best youth players, the overall trip and walking out at the opening ceremony in front of 60,000 spectators is an unforgettable experience. It is great that so many ex-Gothia players have gone on to represent GFC, most recently Callum Le Lacheur, but also Charlton Gauvain, Thomas Dodds, Jordan Kelly, Robbie Legg, Seb Smeed, Zac Felbabel, Miles Hardill and Jacob Fallaize”.

And here’s a comment from Charlton Gauvain, straight from being part of the Guernsey Murratti squad. He was a member of the Gothia squad in both 2015 and 2016

The Gothia Cup is a great experience. You get to meet people from a whole range of different cultures and you also get to play in matches that are a lot tougher than local football technically, physically and mentally. I remember games against clubs like Hammarby IF, a top Swedish premier league side and I really learned a lot from the experience

Athletics

Guernsey’s junior schools hold an annual track and field and crosscountry interinsular competition each year against Jersey. A team of 24 athletes, selected from school competition, are given the chance to train with Guernsey athletics in preparation for the event and this often works as a springboard for a lifetime enjoyment of athletics. This year’s event was held at St George’s School in Jersey

Team manager , Alun Williams, comments:

The opportunity to compete in an inter-insular is a formative experience for these youngsters. We find that it can work as a real motivation for them to commit to athletics. Almost all our current crop of top youngsters started their representative careers in these events, supported by the federation.

Table Tennis

Guernsey is represented at Table Tennis Home internationals due to the funding provided from the Guernsey School sports federation . Derek Webb MBE, team manager, explains the importance of the trips away:

‘The funding we receive from the School Sports Federation is key to us, and many school children have benefited from the support we have had over the last 15 years, Our next trip is in Worcester England on the 22nd June when we are taking 18 children to the ‘Senior Schools International’