Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Friday, 8 November I held my sixth annual interschool mixed basketball competition for primary school students named the Cowan Challenge. The Cowan Challenge is an initiative I created to assist with promoting competitive sport and healthier living and to enable schools across the entire electorate to compete against each other. This includes schools that would not normally have any involvement with each other. I have received some great feedback from students, staff and parents involved in the competition saying that they had a great time competing against students from schools that they would not normally compete against.

The 2013 Cowan Challenge was held at Ashdale Secondary College and attracted 23 teams from 13 schools including Alinjarra Primary School, Ashdale Primary School, Ballajura Primary School, Banksia Grove Catholic Primary School, East Wanneroo Primary School,    Greenwood Primary School, Hudson Park Primary School, Lake Joondalup Baptist College, Mary MacKillop Catholic Primary School, South Ballajura Primary School, Saint Mary's Anglican Girls School, Saint Anthony's School and Wanneroo Primary School. Some of these schools are not within Cowan but do have students from Cowan and that is why they competed.

The competition took place across the whole school day, with schools competing in two pools before the successful schools rose through the semifinals and then ultimately the finals. The larger schools competition, the cup, ended with Lake Joondalup Baptist College winning the final against team 2 of Ashdale Primary School, with St Mary's team 1 being awarded third place after the other bronze medal event.

In the smaller schools competition, the Cowan Challenge Shield was awarded to Kingsway Christian College. Second place went to Banksia Grove Catholic Primary School team 2 and third place was awarded to St Anthony's team 2. Thanks must go to Bill Coghlan in my office for organising this event and making sure it ran as smoothly as possible. I would also like to thank the referees from Woodvale Secondary College for their excellent job, and the scorers and the staff, including Tony Granich from Ashdale Secondary College, for their outstanding support provided on the day.

As a former Australian and state representative in rowing, I am a firm believer in the value of competitive sport. It is good on many levels. It is good for health and fitness, it is good as a learning experience, and it is good for children to exercise control, good conduct and sportsmanship, despite being under a degree of pressure. To that end, I was very pleased that the competition was conducted in a competitive yet friendly manner, even though it was quite a warm day and we only had two indoor courts. Once again, I thank the schools for their support and the competitors for their great efforts on the day.