WARRNAMBOOL College’s rapid rise in state soccer circles has earned it a berth in School Sport Victoria’s (SSV) inaugural Premier League.
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The Grafton Road school is one of just six — and the only one from regional Victoria — which will contest the senior boys’ competition in 2015.
The Premier League begins on February 16. Warrnambool College meets Maribyrnong Sports Academy and Sirius College in two 90-minute matches.
Rowville Secondary College, John Fawkner College and Hallam Secondary College make up the other pool. Warrnambool College soccer academy co-ordinator Luke Howlett said the inclusion was “a massive deal” for the school.
“The competition will present an opportunity for schools to compete at the highest level in school football,” he said.
“Because Maribyrnong and Rowville dominate the senior sports, they’ve taken them out so other schools in their region can have a fair go.
“We’re lucky enough to be included in that league as well. We are the only regional school. The rest are in Melbourne.”
Howlett said SSV sent expression-of-interest forms to schools it believed were suited to the Premier League. Warrnambool College applied, outlining why it deserved a berth. “We talked about the fact we’ve come a long way in two years,” Howlett said.
“We’ve gone from having two teams at the school to having 10 teams and six of those making state finals.”
Howlett said Warrnambool College’s squad would feature mostly year 11 and 12 students. The intermediate boys’ outfit in 2014 was particularly dominant.
“Their closest game in Warrnambool was Emmanuel College where it was 4-0. The closest Ballarat school was 12-2,” he said.
“The jump from there, that was the big problem. They went from ‘this is easy, we’re absolutely dominating’ to going to Melbourne where they had to work harder.”
But expectations of claiming the inaugural title are low, with the soccer program at the school still developing — a message Howlett relayed at a meeting this month.
“Maribyrnong said ‘come out and use our state-of-the-art facilities any time’ and that we could play practice matches against them,” he said. “The Melbourne Victory lady who was there said they were willing to send out one of their development coaches to run sessions with the boys.”
The top two schools in each pool after the Premier League round-robin matches will play cross-over semi-finals.
The grand final is on April 10 as a curtain-raiser to the Melbourne Victory-Newcastle Jets A-League clash at AAMI Park.
afawkes@fairfaxmedia.com.au
