It's a chance for students from grade five to year 12 to represent their schools, set goals, learn valuable life lessons whilst staying fit both physically and mentally.

But interschool sport has become another victim of the coronavirus pandemic's continued impact on the state.

Students have had limited opportunity to represent themselves and their schools at the multitude of team and individual sporting events on offer across the year.

From 2010 to 2019, School Sport Victoria provided more than six million participation opportunities for Victorian students.

More than 3.5 million opportunities were for primary and more than 2.3 million for secondary.

Athletics, cricket, cross country, football, soccer, netball, basketball, swimming, volleyball and tennis were the top 10 of the 37 sports offered by SSV with the most participation opportunities.

In 2019 more than 600,000 students - 61 per cent primary and 39 secondary - participated in interschool sport.

Seven per sent of those came from the Greater Western Region, which includes schools from across the south-west.

In 2020 and 2021 that number would have significantly dropped due to the coronavirus pandemic and the vast number of sporting event cancellations.

Talented teenagers Grace Kelly and Finn O'Sullivan, who have had success in SSV events and teams, said they missed the chance to compete and represent their schools.

Kelly, 15, a multiple SSV state champion in the 100 metres, said she uses the school athletics circuit to get some early race practice ahead of her season.

"It's always good doing it as you get to have a run early in the season, see where everyone is at and where you're at to help you improve later on in season," the Emmanuel College student said.

"It's disappointing that we don't get to do it. The school stuff is good and going all the way from schools to states is really good.

"It sets you up well so you can try different things and see where you're at and how your times are going against others.

"It's also giving you a feel of getting back into competition and helps get the nerves out of way for the bigger competitions so I'm not impacted and I'm ready to go."

O'Sullivan, 15, who won gold with Victoria at the School Sport Australia under 12 football championships three years ago, has represented his school at various levels.

But his last two years at Emmanuel College, he has received a scholarship to join Xavier College next year, have been impacted heavily by the pandemic.

The Koroit footballer, who was selected to represent Victoria at under 15 level this year, said he would take a lot from his experiences in school sport.

"It showed me how good people are at different sports. The level of talent going around Vic Country is amazing and gives me a point of where I am at and the standards they're at," he said.

"I've got a lot of inspiration and what I need to do to improve."

The impact of cancellations has been felt at secondary and primary schools across the region.

Warrnambool College sports coordinator Sara Morrison said the pandemic's impact on school sport had been large.

"We've had to cancel everything in term four, including our junior Warrnambool division summer sports day, which involves all Warrnambool secondary schools, several Greater Western Region events and all state events," she said.

"We had a team going to state cross country and our senior hockey team was going to the Greater Western Region level which has been cancelled. Lots of our teams events have been cancelled.

"Generally, it's really disappointing for all students to miss out on the opportunity and for some that might be their last chance."

Morrison said the impact would be felt differently by individual students.

"Some kids thrive on that competitive environment and missing out on that within the school environment as well as their community sporting clubs will be tough on them," she said.

"For other kids it might've been their introduction to a sport they haven't done before or haven't had the chance to compete at outside of school.

"They're getting a taster and dipping their toes in to see if they like that sport and that has been taken away from them too."

Morrison said interschool sport was a chance for students to represent their schools, learn important life lessons and build resilience.

She said in-house and interschool sport was "hugely important" to students.

"We were fortunate to hold our athletics and swimming carnivals and we also participated in the Warrnambool division round, which was good, it was just unfortunate the kids couldn't go further," she said.

"(In-house sport days) create a positive environment around the school and helps build camaraderie.

"Hopefully we can end the year on a positive note by getting together and representing their school houses and come back bigger and better next year."

Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School physical education teacher Dean Kilpatrick agrees the cancellations' impact was big and that interschool sport was a vital activity.

"At this junction it entails kids mixing with other schools whilst competing against others and it is a vital thing for kids to have a go at," he said.

"It gives them a chance to meet new people and especially for grade sixes moving into secondary school they get to meet other kids and helps give them a leg up for going to high school whilst enjoying the benefits of doing sport.

"It's disappointing that they haven't been able to do that."

Kilpatrick said the mental and physical fitness of kids had also taken a hit as he noticed some of the students showed signs on their return to school that they'd not been doing as much as they had previously.

"At home there are a few who do some extra exercise and some that don't do nearly as much as at school," he said.

"We can see that when they come back to school our foundation and grade twos are not quite ready for it and because their physical activity has dropped off so has their physical fitness by a fair way."

He hoped kids didn't lose interest in interschool sport because of the cancelations.

"The major impact is the fact they're not out there. Having lots of sports being cancelled is going to have a major effect on what goes about at school," he said.

"Over the last two years they've missed out on a lot of school sports.

"There could now be a big difference in the way they look at sport. Hopefully they don't shy away from it and it's not off for too much longer and they can get back into it."

Primary school students are eligible to play interschool sport in grades five and six.

Our Lady Help of Christians and other south-west primary schools' current grade sixes have missed a number of opportunities to play interschool sport in the past two years.

"It's disappointing our grade sixes have missed two years of sport," Kilpatrick said.

"Some of them get started and then get cancelled and others just get cancelled.

"It's disheartening to put the work in to get to the next stage but there is nothing we can do. It is heartbreaking to miss out two years in a row."

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Kilpatrick said there were plenty of mental, social and physical benefits of school sport that primary-aged students had missed.

"It is a great thing for the kids to have that aspect of getting out and having a bit of fun as they are in classes a fair bit," he said.

"It gets them to unwind and focus on something they may enjoy and also gives them something to aim for and to have a bit of challenge and to show their skills and what they have been training for.

"It gives them that release from school, to enjoy themselves and helps for coming years by getting to meet new friends and gives them a leg up and know more people before they go to high school.

"Not many have gone over the past two years and some that don't do these interschool sports so the first couple of weeks of high school will be hard work.

"This year most of them are in different grades and haven't met new friends so when they get to high school they'll be starting over again and they could have met those people when they're out playing sports."

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