Sydney Academy - Record Yearbook (Sydney, Australia)

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Endorsed by the Assembly, a column entitled Pradens Future ap- pears regularly in the Post-Record. The column describes the activities at the Academy and keeps alive public interest in the school. Credit for the column goes to Barbara Gerrard and Gordon Swan. Assembly activities of 1949-50 have been many and varied and this in- stitution continues to be one in which Sydney Academy and its students take pride. '+fSf-0-law THE C. B. FESTIVAL Ruth Newman The Academy students have always taken an active part in the annual Festival of Music, 'Speech and Drama. Among those winning awards in the 1949 Festival were: Eric MacKay and Carolyn MacQueen in the piano classes, Frances Jack in the vocal class, Ruth Newman in the speech class, the Junior Glee Club. This year an addition to the Speech and Drama department has been introduced through the efforts of an Academy teacher. This is a Debating class and it is hoped that many students will participate. .Agri-'t3,3f..- A DETERMINED HEART Chris Raptis Pat Stirling slowly trudged through the snow to the Maplewood High- School gym. Thoughts of the basketball game wfhich her team, the Maplewood High-School Basketball Girls, was going to play with their inter-state rivals, Cloverdale, for the state title, were preying on her mind. Playing her first year of basketball, she had made -the Senior squad, but only as a substitute, and sorry to say, she got on the floor for only a short time. Although she was quite short, the main factor which was keeping Pat from being played was that she was very slow and she often lagged behind in a play. Her shooting when she had a chance was accurate and her passes were swift and deadly. When she had been told of her weakness, she set out to remedy it, and going to the gym an hour earlier on practice evenings, she spent the whole hour in running around the floor and building up speed and by the time that the practice started, she was so tired out that she couldn't play well. This had been going on for two months and with each session she felt herself steadily improving. Before each game, she thought that maybe this would be the evening when she would be put on, but the rivals. of the Maple- wood team were pretty tough customers and the coach usually used all the ex- perienced second year players and as they usually had a t.ough time in b-eating their rivals, he thought that putting Pat on, Cs'he playing her first yearj would be an unwise thing to do. S-o that was how the situation stood. 41 A

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In the State High-School Schedule, the Maplewood team had won eight of its nine starts, and in the final game of the season was to meet Cloverdale in a contest which would give the winner the State Championship. The Clov- erdale girls had been the champs for the last three years, and Maplewood was out to get the crown this time. Pat entered the gym and was greeted by some of her teammates who were getting ready for the Big Game. She changed, put on her uniform, and very soon the team went on the floor for the pre-game warmup. The gym was packed with a great crowd of spectators, many rooting for the Maplewood ag- gregation, while there were some Cloverdale fans who had accompanied their team to Maplewood to see it play in defense of its title. VVhile they were warming up the Cloverdale team came on the floor and Pat noted that they had many tall players. Soon all was ready to start, the eoach issued his starting line-up, and Pat noting her name was not on it, slowly walked to the bench. The game began and during -a hectic first half, the lead was continually changing fro-m one side to another, but in the late stages of the second quarter, the C-loverdale girlspulled ahead and the score at the end of the first half was 18-9, in favor of the visitors. Between the first and second half, tlhe coach-es had a talk with their teams, telling them how they had played during the first part of the game and explaining to them ho-w to improve themselves. The coach of the Maplewood team had noted that their defense was weak and so he told the guards to check a little closer an-d he instructed the forwards t.o shoot, shoot, shoot, whenever they had a chance to do sro. With determination the Maplewood team went on the floor for the continuation of the game and Pat took her place on the bench. As if they had regained their second wind, the Maplewood girls played with a new eagerness and freshness, and soon began racking up the points with their star forward, Babs Reeby, doing most of the sniping, the passes be- ing laid out to her by the other two forwards on the line. The lead between thle twvo teams narrowed down and then, with about eleven seconds left in the game, and with the score Cloverdale 31, Maplewood 29 - calamity struck, in the form of a sprain to Balbs Reeby, the ace centre of the Maplewood team. As Babs hob-bled off the floor the ovation by the crowd was tremendous for she had truly played a magnificent game. Then, Pat Stirling was shocked when she heard her name, of all people, called by the coach as a replacement for Babs. Coach Burke had noticed in Patgood playing material but he knew that her speed had to be -developed, and until she could keep up with the team he thought it best not to use her. However, lately, he had been hearing word of how she was striving t'o attain speed in her own spare time and thinking that she was ready now, 'he decided to take a chance and use her and then hope for the best. As the team was ready to begin playing again, Coach Burke told them: Get the ball as fast -as possible, and you forwards shoot, no matter where you are on the floor. Play began again with the Cloverdale team taking the ball 42