Housemaster's Lament

I have to say that I was very proud of the lads on Saturday. Three years in a row White House have won the Triple Crown, Relay Sports, Heats Week and Sportsday. I really had my doubts that we would be able to carry off another victory on Sportsday, but again 'doubting Thomas' was proved wrong. I am not sure whether the boys do it to prove me wrong! I was worried as we were pushed close on relay sports and often this is an indicator of how well we would do on Sportsday. Also having a few of the big guns injured did not help my feelings of insecurity. I was horribly wrong. On the day, the boys won 17 events, were second in 10 and had boys in the top five in another 10 events! Staggering. What made the difference was not the expected victories, but the unexpected. Justin Wyatt-Smith won the U16 long jump – he said he would – no one believed him and he did. Kevin Shangengange entered in the u19 hurdles through default as one of the White House lads had pulled out through injury so he decide to step in for the heats. He made the finals and was heard to say he would win it on Sportsday- he did! Cornel Smit, was always expected to win his events, but he pulled his quad in the heats and looked doubtful for Saturday. He ran the 100m U14 final and won it, but collapsed in agony at the conclusion. There were so many astonishing and brave moments on the day that deserve mention and I hope the pics tell the story for those lads.




For me the best was the manner in which the lads took the victory and Foxy’s words at the lunch to the boys afterwards summed it all up brilliantly “ ...well done lads we can all be very proud of what we as a House achieved today and remember to be humble and dignified in victory”.


The real heroes on the day were the organisers Kris Otto and Michael Foxcroft who from the outset were more than well organised, passionate and always and most importantly led from the front. Well done lads.


It is such a pleasure to get back into some form of routine now that the madness of the first few weeks is behind us. Warren and I have given the boys fair warning that poor academic effort will meet with definite consequence and we have encouraged the boys to get on top of their studies. Zero tolerance has been implemented in prep time. Please support us in this, by keeping the weekends sane for the boys and putting on some academic pressure of your own.

From Monday onwards, the school will be closing down on all boys who are not dressed inappropriately. Hair and shoes will be the focus for next week. The boys are well aware of the consequences.

Well done again to Jack Nebe who has again been selected to the South African U18 Ice Hockey Team. Jack will be competing in Mexico later in the year.

It was so nice to see one of our ODs pop in during the week, Damian Johnson 2007, and to hear how well he is doing at Rhodes University.
 
Have a great weekend and we look forward to hearing how the boys going with Phil Court to Afrika Pool, near Porterville, go and hopefully some nice pics and stories come back.
 
Take care