ROSEWOOD State High’s sporting talent is already rising this year with volleyball as one of the school’s most exciting programs.
Trinity Tait was among the students recently selected to represent Met West at the state volleyball championships being held at Nissan Arena in Brisbane from April 19-22.
Sisters Tyla and Reigan Evans were also chosen in the Met West swimming team which is preparing for the Queensland titles at Sleeman Sports Complex.
Tyla is representing her zone in the 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle.
Reigan is contesting the 50m and 100m breaststroke after qualifying through recent Western Ranges trials. She recently broke a school 50m butterfly record set 16 years ago.
Both swimmers, two years apart, have competed at previous state championships.
In volleyball, Summer Townsend and Trinity’s brother Lincoln also made the Western Rangers 16-19 years team.
The Tait siblings were among the first to get involved in volleyball at the school with Trinity displaying early potential against the older, more intense boys.
Trinity is still one of the younger representatives making an impression playing at school, rather than club, level.
It will be Trinity’s second state titles, playing in the middle position, after being part of the Met West team that came fourth last year.
She enjoys the speed of the game and adrenalin rush being involved in volleyball.
Rosewood State High English teacher and volleyball coach Maddison Steinhardt was delighted the school was building a strong base in the high-flying sport.
The former state title-winning player was keen to develop the sport at Rosewood after she started teaching in 2020.
“Bringing in my niche of volleyball, I started a bit of a community beginning with a boys’ team,” Miss Steinhardt said.
Last year, Rosewood State High’s open boys’ side won the CISSSA (Combined Secondary School Sport Association) competition. The school’s open girls came runners-up.
Rosewood’s open boys side won the silver medal after progressing to the Beach Schools Cup series involving teams from around the state.
The boys also performed well at the Queensland Schools Cup indoor tournament.
As a volleyball mentor, Miss Steinhardt likes the technique level required to play.
“People think that it’s a bit of a slow sport but the skill demand is actually really interesting to me,” Miss Steinhardt said.
“It [volleyball] is growing.”
She said Rosewood State High’s next focus was the Schools Cup in August “and building up those boys and girls team this year”.
Another sport supporter is Elly Burling, a Rosewood State High science teacher and part of the HPE team.
She was also happy to see volleyball offered to students.
“We probably don’t have as many kids interested in swimming as we do volleyball,” she said. “There is probably more accessible volleyball facilities than swimming at our school.”
Ms Burling was also pleased to see students trying sports like Aussie rules, netball and touch football.
A number of sports are supported through the school house competition. The school houses are Rosemount, Oakleigh, Smithfield and Normanton.
“The kids have their sporting classes here but as the HPE department, we want to encourage them to be involved in as many opportunities as they can,” Ms Burling said.
“There are so many benefits from being physically active.
“It’s great to see that we have kids that like to do things outside of school.”
