Hi Devils,

This is my first newsletter since being elected President… apologies for the delay but I had Covid, and have been coaching in the Sixes comp, among other things.

Firstly, I would like to congratulate the new committee for 2023. The committee looks as follows…

President: Peter Greenhalgh
Vice President: Michael Forbes
Secretary: Stacey Appleton
Treasurer: Mark Newman
General Committee: Kristin Greenhalgh, Melissa Robjohns, Damien Halliwell, Peter Forbes, Peter Green, Mark Wilson, Jennifer Buttfield.

I am honoured to be able to represent the Sturt Lacrosse Club and with the team of people above I believe we have a range of skill sets that will see the club move successfully into the future. I would like to thank the previous committee members from over the years, particularly those that have helped to deliver our club the new facilities we have the benefit of. The most recent committee has also done a fantastic job in this first period of our usage and have given my team a great start into how we can move forward as well as winning the rights to host the Senior National Championships in June 2023.

Sturt has hosted the second half of the Lacrosse SA Sixes comps. As a club, we nominated U15 boys, coached by Mike Forbes and girls U15, coached by myself. We also nominated a junior boys social team, coached by Jacob Newman and junior girls social team, coached by Mackenzie Appleton. We nominated a senior women social team and a senior men Sixes team coached by me.

The sixes version of lacrosse is the proposed format for when lacrosse wins Olympic inclusion. It is also the version that was used in the recent World Games hosted in the USA earlier this year. Given the importance of the Sixes format, as a club we decided to have coaches for all Sixes teams as well as junior social teams so that our members understand that we are taking the format seriously. We want as many Olympics superstars coming from Sturt Lacrosse Club as possible!!!

Our box lacrosse team combined with Glenelg again as the SeaDevils and had a good season finishing in third position.

Another important note for our club is the selection of Ryle Kustermann and Jacob Newman in the next stage of the Australian Lacrosse Team trials. I know these young men have been working hard all year for this and their inclusion in the squad is just reward for their efforts.

Our outgoing Secretary and tireless clubwoman, Felicity Evans, is proving she is not walking away from administrative duties in the sport either. She recently nominated and was elected to a position on the Lacrosse SA Board of Directors. Congratulations Felicity!!!

Finally, we have had a bunch of U18 Devils trialling for their respective state teams. Unfortunately no girls made the girls team, as there were only a few changes from last years team that finished second. However a number of boys made their team. Those boys are:

• Oli Kernaghan
• James How
• Mick Baulderstone
• Ewan Lauck
• Tai Sakamoto (Alternate)

Unfortunately Ben Clarkson missed out, however state coach and Sturt Devil, Sam Kilford, said that it was an extremely hard decision to leave Ben out and for Tai to be made an alternate.

With Christmas just around the corner, on behalf of the SLC Committee, I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas. Enjoy the time off you might have, because we will be back before you know it with pre-season just around the corner.

Keep on laxing!

Pete