Wellington College hosted their very first football tournament on the 19th of October, with the Shanghai Big 12 U14s seven-a-side competition. It was a fantastic day and all the schools involved competed in a fashion that reflected great credit on their teachers and coaches. The tournament was for both boys and girls, and, from a Wellington perspective, both our teams reached their respective finals, where they did themselves proud. The girls were drawn against SUIS and, after a hard fought match, they unfortunately lost 2-0. They created many chances and, on another day,  might have scored three or four goals. Credit goes to the SUIS goalkeeper, who kept her team in it, by making a series of outstanding saves. The boys played some beautiful football, moving the ball fluidly and creating a lot of chances. It was a great team effort by the whole squad and they were unbeaten throughout the tournament. Zack Lamb, Luka Ceyssens and Alex Burton remained strong at the back, only conceding 3 goals in the whole tournament. Alex Dyckerhoff and Ben Cook worked tirelessly in midfield, while Max Dyckerhoff linked the play really well into Sam Ceyssens, who was clinical in front of goal. In the final, the boys also met SUIS and, on this occasion, the match ended in Wellington’s favour by a score of 6-1. However, at one stage, it was 2-1 and it could have gone either way, but the boys showed great character and outstanding fitness to push on in the latter stages of the game. For the girls, the individual award for sportsmanship was awarded to Coco Brandini, while for the boys Max Dyckerhoff was quite rightly awarded the MVP for the tournament.  It was fantastic to see such success so early on in the College’s history and, with both teams being fairly young, we have an exciting future ahead of us. Thanks must go to all of the parents for their continued support. It is greatly appreciated. Mr Shaw and Jerry, our intern,  did an incredible job helping to referee the tournament, as well as Mr Palmer for all his hard work with the team.  We look forward to seeing you all at our upcoming tournaments.