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Sydney Home | Good Shepherds find green pastures
It’s all smiles for the Good Shepherd Seminary soccer players after their victory in Melbourne. Pictured from left are, at rear: Anthony Bernard, Andrew James, Peter Zwaans, Lan Duong, Nicolas Maurice, Chris Higgins, Charbel Raish, Kim Ha; front: Long Nguyen, Thomasz Pytraczyk, Philip Shwe, Kevin Wagner, Greg Saw, Vong Nyuyen, Tim Ellicot and Danai Penollar.
By Nicholas Maurice
It was the battle for the inter-seminary soccer trophy in Melbourne, with twice as many teams as last year. There were players from Melbourne, Wagga, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth. The six teams included the Neo-Catechumenates of Sydney, Neo-Catechumenates of Perth, the Missionaries of God’s Love (MGLs) and, of course our team, the Good Shepherd Seminary from Homebush, Sydney. After the long drive to Melbourne on the Friday, most of us fell asleep easily. Saturday morning began with Mass, then the 130 or so seminarians made their way to the playing fields. We played first and faced the MGLs who beat us 2-1. After resting for a game we played Melbourne and won 3–1, which placed us in the semi-finals – against the MGLs again. We played a more settled game and beat them 2-1 to make it to the finals. The Good Shepherd players were quite tired by this stage and some guys were suffering cramps. Moreover we were facing the Neo-Catechumenates of Perth who, we’d heard, had held one of their opponents scoreless. This was not going to deter us, though; besides, we hadn’t driven 1000km just to hand the trophy over to someone else. In fact, both teams were tired and the game was still goal-less even near the end of the second half. But we had been applying steady pressure on their defence for much of the game and eventually we scored to clinch the tournament. Warm but hasty showers followed, then we gathered again at Melbourne seminary for the evening’s dinner. It was a wonderful time of communion for seminarians from all parts of Australia. Many commented on Melb-ourne’s particular genius for hospitality. Every aspect of the weekend was well prepared and proceeded smoothly. Melbourne seminarians served with gentleness and generosity; they even gave up their rooms for visiting seminarians and slept in camp stretchers themselves. On Sunday morning we packed into the chapel for the final Mass. Then after breakfast final goodbyes were said and we started back for Sydney, trophy still in our possession. Our soccer boots have been packed away again, aches and pains (even a broken rib) have started to heal, essays and study have forced their way back into our consciousness and the only jogging anyone at the seminary is doing at the moment is that of his memory. Nicholas Maurice is a second year student at the Good Shepherd Seminary, Homebush
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