Volleyball
Our school’s Golden Era of Volleyball was between 1995 and 2004, which produced at least 6 State Champion teams, two Australian Champion teams, and many other State Runner-Up and Top 4 teams.
Ric and Jenny Chivers were the catalyst for this era, with regular training and the spearheading of journeys to regular VSSSA State Championship and Vic Schools Cup tournaments in Melbourne, and trips to Canberra for the National Championships for over a decade.
This crescendoed in 2000 and 2001, when we had two teams become Australian Champion at the National Championships.
The comeback of the Under 17 Girls of 2000 to win the National Title is folklore. After winning 7 matches (and Rebecca Gilbert being named Player Of the Tournament), we were down 12-24 in the Semi Final to Wonthaggi Secondary College, before Jodie Ussher served 13 straight to win it 27-25. Then in the Gold Medal Match against Adelaide’s Brighton Secondary School, we were down 15-23 in the Final set, when Tegan Hartwig served 9 in a row to take the Title. Both stand as one of the greatest moments in our 100+ year history of Sport.
We can find 3 Australian Gold Medal winning teams on record. The most recent is the 2001 Under 17 Boys which boasted 3 State players (Alister Box, Anthony McGuire and Riley Minns).
The Chivers era of Volleyball produced at least 23 (that we know of) State Team Volleyballers – pretty much in every year between 1992 and 2004. In both 1997 and 2002, were had 5 players in a Big V Volleyball team.
Those on record as making State teams include: Jenny Sharpe and Danny Illott (1992), David Box (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996), Ben Waldhart (1994), Pat Dowling (1994, 1995), Kerry White (1995), Shane Box (1995, 1997), Peter Foster (1997, 1998), Danny Freeman (1997), Scott Challman (1997), Heath Flanagan (1997), Jordan Fisher (1998), Jane Harrison (1998), Rebecca Gilbert (1999, 2002), Anthony McGuire (1999), Riley Minns (1999), Alister Box (1999), Kirby Goodey (2002), Michael Porter (2002), Brooke Moore (2002), Katherine Scott (2002), Jay Chivers (2002), Tyson Hartwig (2003) and Tim Aumann (2004).
Kerry White and Rebecca Gilbert went a step further and played for Australia.
The Box brothers (David, Shane and Alister) make up our greatest Volleyball family ever, with all 3 boys making State teams, and playing in a State or Australian Champion school team. Mum Debbie was also a part of our Golden Era, coaching many of our teams on the State and National trips.
Danny Illott went on to make a career out of the sport, and became Head Coach of the “Volleyroos”, the Australian Men’s National team.
