After a year of devastation, Blakebrook’s soccer team is gunning for the state championship

With its school underwater, the Blakebrook Public School soccer team didn’t have a place to train for much of the year. Now they’re heading to Sydney to take on the state’s best.

The students at Blakebrook Public School have had a year like no other.

After flood damage in February and March swept through their school and forced them off-site for much of the year, Blakebrook’s soccer team is preparing for a trip of a lifetime to Sydney where they have the chance to be crowned state champions.

The school of 51 students, located 10 minutes outside of Lismore, will next week take part in the semi-finals of division two of the NSW PSSA Small Schools Football Knockout, which is open to schools with between 30 and 60 students.

“I think it’s just been really great for our kids to be able to participate in this competition and do so well,” says principal Sam Bowkett. “I’ve spoken to a few of the kids and they’re excited to go to a place like Sydney and compete at that high-level competition. I know that they’re a little bit nervous, but they’re excited at the same time.”

The Blakebrook Public School soccer team, with principal Sam Bowkett, ahead of their 2022 NSW PSSA Small Schools Football Knockout semi-final. Photo: Blakebrook Public School.

After receiving a first round bye, Blakebrook’s team – which is made up of a mix of boys and girls from year three to year six – defeated Eureka, Rosebank and Repton public schools on the road to the semis, with the excitement well and truly on show after the most recent 1-0 win in the quarter finals earlier this month.

“We announced at the end of the game that we’d be heading to Sydney and the kids were just over the moon,” says Bowkett. “They were jumping around with excitement after a tough match against Repton and they were just so happy to know that they were going through to the finals down in Sydney.”

Back on site

The story is all the more remarkable given the year the school has had.

Like much of the Northern Rivers, the school was badly affected by the February and March floods, with floodwaters inundating buildings and leaving the site unusable.

So bad was the damage that students and teachers were forced to completely relocate their classes, with the school sharing the site of nearby Goolmangar Public School for five months while the clean-up effort continued.

“We had significant damage throughout our classrooms,” Bowkett said. “We were off our site for a significant amount of time.”

While a minor disruption in the grand scheme of things, the relocation meant that even space for the team to train was hard to come by.

However in recent months the students have returned to their school, which has a series of fully operational temporary classrooms and facilities that are being used while the main school refurbishment continues.

“They’re really, really happy just to be back in their own playground and doing all those things that they love doing,” says Bowkett.

Blakebrook won the small schools knockout back in 2013. Photo contributed.

And if you happen to walk past Blakebrook’s playground, you’re likely to see a few soccer balls being kicked back and forth across the yard as the team prepares for its big match in the big smoke.

“Some of the kids have played soccer before and some of them are only new to the sport,” says Bowkett. “The ones that haven’t played before have picked it up pretty quickly and their confidence has built throughout the rounds to get us to where we are.”

And while it has been a difficult year for all involved, Bowkett says the team’s dream run has been a wonderful moment that all can celebrate.

“I think the overwhelming feeling that we’ve got from our community and from our students in particular is how we’ve banded together. The way they’ve come together to support each other and really look out for one another has been really great to see.”

Blakebrook will play against Barrington Public School, from the Gloucester Shire, on Wednesday in the Sydney suburb of Glenwood, with the winner to take on either Iona or Central Tilba public schools in the final.

“We’ll take the bus down, do the long trip, then hopefully come home with a couple of wins,” says Bowkett.