Athletics

I would like to extend a warm welcome to you and thank you for your interest in Barker Athletics.

Track and Field at Barker caters for athletes with a wide range of abilities, from recreational to national level. The Athletics season takes place predominately in Term 3 after the winter sports season. There are voluntary pre-season training sessions in all the Athletic disciplines held every Friday afternoon, starting in Term 1.

I believe that Athletics has much to offer as a sport and can bring tremendous rewards to participants. These rewards include physical, mental, social and educational benefits. I hope that you become involved in Barker Athletics and that it is a rewarding experience for you personally in all of these ways. I wish you every success in your endeavours. The other coaches and I will do our best to assist and encourage you.

The nature of CAS and ISA Athletic competition is very team oriented with a points system designed to reward a good all round performance from a team rather than one strong individual performance. The other Coaches and I stress the importance of the team. This sport provides a great opportunity to improve fitness and general well-being as well as being involved in competition and having some fun along the way.

Athletics at Barker aims to be welcoming to all athletes regardless of ability. We encourage all to participate and recognise that self improvement is the most important thing, not just winning. We will still compete strongly and aim for Athletic excellence and success but we do not want Athletics at Barker to be seen as a sport for the elite and talented only.

There will be times when we train very hard but there will also be times where we have a lot of fun and enjoy the company of others. Each season members of the Barker Athletics community will be invited to several functions.

The three major social functions are:

1. The Athletics Camp;
2. The Season Launch function; and
3. The End of Season Function and Awards Night (the night after the CAS Championships).

There will also be several smaller functions mainly for athletes only held immediately after training.

Lee Batchler
Master In Charge of Athletics