Sports School faction carnivals

[Marlowe]

I remember being good at softball and nothing else. Which is weird, because If I attempted to pitch softball style today, I wouldn't have a clue.

Softball and drawing: two skills that have evaded me as I aged.

 

[TheSituation23]

was a good jumper, poor runner and a horrible swimmer but i benched like a boss.

 

[bresker]

a lot of the guys and gals that were good back then at that sort of s**t seemed to be the sort of people whose life peaked in high school.

Was Jack Watts in your class?

 

[hamohawk1]

you have to wonder with all those early morning training kids. playing tennis at a relatively high level i knew heaps of kids who would wake up before and after school to train. fair to say none of them got anywhere and i gained some great sleep

 

[Caesar]

Crazy as it may seem, some people actually enjoy exercising, training and competing at the highest level they are capable of. Even if they don't 'get anywhere' by your standards.

 

[Zach Package]

competed at state level in discus.

had the perfect combination of pretty long arms, big hands and a budding beer gut

 

[Handsuper47]

I've never really been too interested in sports carnivals, whenever I competed always got an average result so I didn't bother continuing. Just put more focus on studies and fun.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I remember being good at softball and nothing else. Which is weird, because If I attempted to pitch softball style today, I wouldn't have a clue.

Softball and drawing: two skills that have evaded me as I aged.

Well Mr.Burns had done it. The Power Plant had won it. With Roger Clemens clucking all the while, Mike Socia's tragic illness made us smile, While Wade Boggs laid unconscious on the bar-room tile. We're talking softball. From Maine to San Diego. Talking softball, Manningly and Conseco, Ken Griffy's grotesquely swollen jaw, Steve Sax and his run-in with the law, We're talking Homer.....Ozzy and the Straw.

 

[SugarShane]

Used to own the school when Sports Day came around. Won the 100m as well as the 4x100m relay nearly every year. Was always up there in the 400m, High Jump and Discus too.

Discus was the funniest one of the lot. Obviously if i'm winning 100m sprints i'm not your average bulky discus thrower. But i signed up for it for shits and giggles one year and blitzed all the fat buggers who thought they had it in the bag. Even got myself to the interschool athletics championships with it where i was unceremoniously destroyed by these bulky dudes who were actually trained in how to do it properly.

Wasn't great at swimming carnivals, but always put my hand up for the easiest event or even volunteering so i could do one thing and then perve for the rest of the day.

Pretty sure i'm the kind of guy who peaked in high school. Used to be a gun in pretty much everything we tried in PE too.

 

[MarcusP2]

Rubbish at all sports my entire life, school carnivals for me was signing up for the lamest event to avoid being forced into something difficult later or volunteering to measure/referee. Was good at putting on the coloured zinc cream and cheering on though. Also my House was complete rubbish and we finished bottom out of 10 every year I was there.

 

[Roobs321]

Doing a lot of nippers and cross country as a junior, my pet event was the biathlon which closed the school swimming carnival. I was a decent enough endurance freestyle swimmer, and an excellent endurance runner, so used to come out of the pool in the 2nd quarter of the field and finish in the top few (it was an all ages all genders school event).

I once got to Regional and State level cross country, and did it for every year of school, but since it was my pet event it was always full of nerves for the school carnival. The swimming one I only did biathlons after year 8, was happy to chill with friends the rest of the day (usually great days, although I missed school on these days if possible). Mainly just did freestyle events (except in Year 6 as sport captain where I was the only person to compete in all events). Breaststroke I have always been a clown at, and Butterfly was only good when young and flexible, by the age of 15 its almost impossible lol, especially beyond 50m.

Athletics I was more meh about, 800m is the only event I was a threat in. Things like javelin, discuss, shot put, high jump, etc. no chance lol.

So yeah, in high school I was a contender in all endurance events, but the shorter the race or the less-cardio involved, the more average I was. The longer a cardio event went on, the more chance I had of winning. Mental strength takes you a long way in school carnivals if you have an ounce of athletic ability.

In the defence force I have competed in some more sports carnivals, and ran the final leg in a relay which involved 10 runners running 3.2km 3 times (30 leg relay). There were about 10 relay teams at least, and my faculty team had not won in many years, so it was a special day, especially since how epic and long the event was (took all morning). The 2nd team was starting to catch us as well and I departed only 30 seconds in front on the last leg, so doing a PB in the final leg and running away with it was my greatest sporting moment along with the 2 marathons I completed.

I was living as a guy back then too, so its fun to look back and say that I could take it up to the guys in sport

I've sort of resigned from competitive sport now, as I don't want to be in the emotionally harrowing situation of placing in an event and other competitors protesting about my involvement. You just have to watch the media treatment of that South African athletics runner to know what I mean.

 

[DrVanNostrand]

The only high school sports carnival I showed up to was in Grade 12, just because it was my last year and a few of my mates were going for the sake of it. I didn't even plan of competing, but got talked into it by my PE teacher and somehow won the 100m, 200m and 400m running in my footy boots and sunnies.
Spurred on by this, I entered the long jump later in the day on a whim and came second last in a field of about 15

It's a thing of legend that still gets talked about (this was five years ago) but to this day I CHOOSE NOT TO RUN.

Proudest school sporting achievement was winning MVP for the cricket team in Grade 12.

 

[Xtreme]

competed at state level in discus.

had the perfect combination of pretty long arms, big hands and a budding beer gut

Was the same, started off as a sprinter doing 100m events at primary school always finished second, towards the end of primary school when i porked up in weight i moved to discus and shotput..... got plenty of 1sts and 2nds though. It was funny as it my very first event i tagged along as my best friend was doing the same one. Didn't care how well i did, but finished first. I dabbled in high jump but stopped midway through high school. The senior events were a lot more fun as we took the piss out of the races - either dressing up in costume while running or deliberately fake racing (ie: running backwards, sideways etc).

NEVER participated in swimming carnivals at primary or high school..... as i can't swim , they were still ok to go to purely for the water fights we would have. I opted out of the last few at high school as i couldn't be bothered going.

 

[blueboy25]

Speedos were compulsory at my high school which made for some embarrassing times at school swimming carnivals for the majority of the 13 & 14yo lads.

I always did ok in the freestyle and butterfly and made the school team most years. The inter-school swimming carnival was always a good day as you got to perv at new chicks from the other schools. Just had to make sure you didn't get too excited if you know what I mean.

When it came to athletics I always did well at the sprint events but really struggled at anything longer than 400m.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I always did ok in the freestyle and butterfly and made the school team most years. The inter-school swimming carnival was always a good day as you got to perv at new chicks from the other schools. Just had to make sure you didn't get too excited if you know what I mean.

Interschool carnivals had an off atmosphere, for me. They were always held on Thursday nights for us. So you'd get a fair few people just coming along with their mum and dad's to watch – seeing people's parents, and what kids wore out of school, was always surprising. Then you'd have those enigmas from other schools who you'd see for the first time. It was like stepping out of normality for the first time.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Did i mention i throw like a girl?

We had a comp where you would ditch a softball as far as you could

First division featured 2 guys who played college baseball, and half my friends

Division 4 with the combination of the heavily devout muslim guy, the Guy with Hemophilia, the obvious kid who was gay as the day is long the chubby kid, then me, captain of the primary school basketball team, one of the best swimmers in the state and i had trouble throwing a ball straight over 10 meters

I still do as well, anytime i played cricket i would bags a slip or wicket keeper, to give me an excuse

 

[TuckInTheRuck]

My favourite memory of inter-house athletics was getting disqualified from the year 10 discus competition.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

My favourite memory of inter-house athletics was getting disqualified from the year 10 discus competition.

Did you throw a wobbly?

 

[A Swallow]

Was never much of a swimmer, did manage to win the backstroke in year 12 though even though I was completely shitfaced on the day. Went in most events at the swimming carnival due to being house captain, but was placed third or fourth most of the time.

Long distance running was my thing. Won the cross country every year of school aside from year 11 when I had a torn groin from football, got a top three at inter-school most years and probably about 9th or 10th at state. Was decent short distance as well, in year 7 or 8 for some reason no one in my house wanted to compete in our houses open age 4x100m relay. It just so happened that my older cousin was house captain at the time, so his younger brother, one of his mates and I won the thing. That was a good day.

There was also school football, soccer, basketball, cricket etc. that were always good trips.

 

[stmookeyj]

Talking from high school, much preferred Cross-Country. Not only was I personally good at it (podium finish in Year 11, 4th the next year, made the school team twice), but it was a day at the beach AND it was the last day of the first term (and our house managed to win more often than not, we did finish last in the others). Didn't mind the running or swimming and making up the numbers but those days did drag on a bit, so much so that the athletics took an extra 5/6 lunchtimes to complete. There were 3 days of field events, our school had long/high/triple jump, shot put, discus and javelin and there was only time for 3 of them on the day, plus a day for the 1500m and later on a day each for sprint hurdles and a 3000m.

I do also recall in Year 7 in Darwin our athletics carnival had a tie for the win and the third house finishing a mere 7 points behind. Sadly we (sister and I) were in the 3rd house.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I am sorry, but I can never respect someone who enjoyes cross country.

The wet, cold in middle of June... running through mud and up steps, down hills, generally having an unpleasant time. Just s**t. The worst thing is that I was really good at it up until year 6 – and on two occasions I let my mate finish first because I'd won a heap of swimming events that year. all I have is five or six runner's up medals...

 

[DrVanNostrand]

Do people from WA seriously call school sporting houses 'factions'?

I did the cross-country once in high school (because it was mandatory for grade 8) and came 17th by just chilling back with one of my mates from cricket. Never bothered again, but one of my mates did it every year for the day off school and somehow qualified for districts every year despite being one of the least athletic people I knew. This is a guy who routinely got a stitch walking to class.

If I had my high school years all over again, I'd definitely participate in more non-cricket sporting events, just to flog the s**t out of all the macho ****wits who thought they ran the joint. Was school cricket captain in year 10 and 12, and making those campaigners field at fine leg every game was somewhat fun.

 

[triplejdude]

Never went to a high school sporting carnival. Hated individual sports, always preferred interschool basketball.

Used carnivals as an excuse to have all my mates around for the day. Was quality.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Wow, so many super athletes in here with so much natural talent but far too cool and hip to waste their time on training like the rest of us losers.

 

[A Swallow]

I am sorry, but I can never respect someone who enjoyes cross country.

The wet, cold in middle of June... running through mud and up steps, down hills, generally having an unpleasant time. Just s**t. The worst thing is that I was really good at it up until year 6 – and on two occasions I let my mate finish first because I'd won a heap of swimming events that year. all I have is five or six runner's up medals...

Yeah I can honestly say that although I was naturally good at it, I never enjoyed it. I had a coach outside of school for a while, but I realised after a few months that I was only doing it because I was good at it, I didn't like it one bit. Push yourself to your limit, then push yourself some more. Yay.