Totara Springs Sports Camp

The beautiful Totara Springs Camp is situated just outside the township of Matamata and this was home for a week to 32 Somerville students on our annual sports camp. The Somerville team competed in over 30+ sports, against 8 other schools, over the 5 days.

Early morning, starting at 6.10 am, would see the Somerville students at our meeting room. We would have a team meeting and briefing of the day, along with acknowledgements and rewarding the special ‘Dufus of the Day’ award - students nominate others for something silly and light-hearted they had done the day before. Then finally before breakfast, we would practise the Somerville Cheer routine.

The campers were certainly well fed, with student friendly meals that would fuel our athletes for competition. After breakfast, all the schools would meet in the conference room with the highlights video from the day before, along with a special guest speaker. The sports rotation would then begin with 20 minute games and 5 minutes to get to your next activity. There was certainly a lot of running between sports fields, courts and the gymnasium. All our students would agree that keeping well hydrated and plenty of fresh fruit was very important and helpful between breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our first day concluded, with our students combined, competing in 60 games. After the day's rotations and dinner, the night sports rotations would start again from 6.30 - 9.00 pm. This left the students the last half an hour to settle in for the evening, with lights out at 9.30 pm. Everyone slept well, knowing they would then repeat this routine over the remaining week.

Competing and having fun while playing sport was definitely a highlight of the camp. Many of our students forming friendships with other students from other schools, was also fantastic to be part of. Our Totara goal was to acknowledge team members, opponents, referees, umpires, coaches and managers and our students certainly achieved this, as commented on by many schools. The Somerville team finished in the top 4 schools out of 8 schools, taking out the Cup for Hockey Mixed, Girls Indoor Hockey, Kayaking, Croquet and Sports Quiz.  

Well done to all the students and adults who attended. You made Somerville Intermediate very proud and we look forward to returning in 2023 with a new Somerville Totara Camp Sports Team.