Glennie School rewarded with touch excellence program

After years of trying, a Toowoomba school has finally been recognised by Touch Football Australia for its efforts in providing a high-quality program. Check out the details here.

The Glennie School touch football students Lucy Anlezark, Anna Park, Pypah Ferguson and Ruby Leicht.

The Glennie School has been recognised on a national level by Touch Football Australia and is now one of a select few schools to be able to offer a touch football excellence program to its students.

There are only 14 schools in the country with this privilege and this is the first in the Darling Downs to have this excellence program on offer.

The Glennie School head of touch football Abbie Prendergast was delighted for what this opportunity will provide her students.

“I think it is a wonderful opportunity to be able to offer a product for our girls, we have a lot of girls that are recognised through our touch system,” she said.

“They get recognised through (Toowoomba) Twisters then often progress to the South West region through to the national youth championships.”

The program also marked a sense of relief for Prendergast and the team at Glennie, given they have tried for three years to attain this honour.

“It is a sense of relief, there has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes and lots of communication with the appropriate people,” she said.

“It is good that we get to put forward our program that is recognised by such a big platform.”

Glennie boasts a strong touch football contingent and with this additional excellence program, Prendergast believes it will help increase growth in the sport.

“In our club system we have 80 girls in the junior years and 70 in the senior years, so it looks like we’ve got eight teams playing under-6 to under-12 at the moment” she said.

“Then on a Wednesday night we have got three teams in the under-14s and two in the under-16s.

“We have three Australian representatives across our rep teams this year and then we have a high-profile Australian coach coming in to deliver some clinics for our junior and senior years girls so I think it will be really beneficial for them.”

Touch captain Lucy Anlezark is delighted to be able to be involved with this program in her final year of schooling.

“I have been here since year eight and it is just an amazing opportunity,” she said.

“I think it is awesome for the younger girls to be brought up in it and it is just awesome to have.”

Anlezark is also excited to develop her game further through this new program.

“Having the coach Miss Prendergast is pretty awesome and especially her background with Australia, so she has taught us so much skills so it is great to have her.

“But especially this program, it will just be amazing because we learn new skills and play more.”