St Johns College have celebrated and acknowledged the achievements of their most successful sports stars at their annual sports awards ceremony.
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This year, the invited guest was former NSW Swifts captain Abbey McCulloch, who spoke to the students about hardship and perseverance.
"Being from a smaller area myself growing up, I absolutely jumped at the opportunity to come here and speak," McCulloch said.
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"I was fortunate enough to get to share a little bit about my own journey, where I'm from and the setbacks that I've had; the injuries and the resilience and hard work I've had to put in to ultimately get to captaining the Swifts."
"Hopefully it inspires at least one of the kids in the crowd."
One of the students listening, Jack Allen, was lucky enough to take out top honours in the swimming category, while also having his name etched into the highly coveted Gerard Yeo Memorial Trophy for his efforts.
"I also got the school bellyflop championship, which is pretty funny, but yeah, I've been awarded the open boy's age swimming championship along with the Gerard Yeo Memorial Trophy, which is a great honour," Allen said.
I'm very proud of how I've went over the years with my swimming at St John's and getting recognised today at the assembly is a huge honour for me.
- Jack Allen
"To receive that, a student has to show great leadership and great determination and always do the best they can in the sports they participate in at school, not just work hard and train hard, but try and do the best they can no matter what."
Among those selected alongside Jack Allen to receive awards were cycling prodigies Kurt Eather, Dylan Eather and Haylee Fuller, as well as track and field stars Millie Gooch, Lockie Townsend, Nosa Obaseki and Ella Penman.
Principal Kerry Morris said the long list of recipients receiving awards overall was a good indication of how successful the cohort had been.
"We're very proud of their achievements, right across a whole spectrum of sports they've achieved great things this year and today's assembly went for hours, we had so many recipients," Morris said.
Morris also congratulated the faculty's efforts in ensuring the student's success, praising acting sports co-ordinator Nicki McWhirter and sports co-ordinator Dave McAllister's influence.
"Nicki McWhirter and Dave McAllister have both been very active in ensuring that our athletes are successful and we've got fifteen different staff that are coaching at the moment, so it's a big commitment from everyone."
