They may be young, but it hasn’t taken the pupils at St Theresa’s Primary School in Albion long to develop a never-say-die attitude.
After a dominant run through the inter-school sport netball season, which saw the school unbeaten in 12 games, St Theresa’s season came down to the grand final against St Albans East Primary School.
With nothing separating the two teams when the final whistle blew, the match went into overtime.
Despite looking down and out after falling three goals behind, the mixed team of grade five-six students clawed its way back into the match to draw level. With three seconds to go, one last foray forward provided the ultimate reward and St Theresa’s scored the winning goal.
Grade five-six teacher and netball coach Tenielle-Marie Pereira said it was an amazing finish.
“It’s been the same eight kids the whole way through and the teamwork has been incredible,” she said.
“When they score it isn’t just one person scoring, it’s the whole team and that attitude is what has got them so far.
“It’s amazing how passionate they are and how wonderful the whole school community has been. They have turned up to every single match and it’s been fantastic.”
The win allowed St Theresa’s to progress to the regional finals, where it came up against opposition that is professionally coached and trains on weekends.
But St Theresa’s won two of its four matches to finish third of more than 380 primary schools in Victoria – the farthest any sporting team from the school has progressed in the inter-school sports program.
