The girls also took part in the first-ever girls secondary school Chan Ba Trophy with XIS and XLIS. This was a 5-a-side tournament and was under threat because of pitch conditions that would have been detrimental to the girls footballing development. Fortunately, we are blessed with a fantastic facility here at Hanova so we made the decision to take the girls competition into the gym, where we made a 5-a-side court.

The team were again open-minded about this change and showed great skills to adapt to the situation so quickly. Our first game was against XIS and the female Hawks ran out comfortable 3-0 winners, with the 3rd goal of the game being something to be proud of at any level of football. The second game of the day was possibly going to be a tense affair, as it was winner takes the champions trophy against XLIS. However, our girls played a calm, assured, performance and in the end won the game 3-0.

The way the girls tried to pass and move displayed really good knowledge of how to play in invasion games and their quality deservedly shone through, meaning that the Hanova Hawks girls football team are the 2023 Chan Ba Trophy Champions! Our All-Star team nominations were Faith Gibbs and Alice Zhang.

Thank you to parents, the school nurse, Ms Carrie, Mr Goden, Isabella’s father for taking photos throughout the day, and the admin team who ensured everything was set up for us. These events could not happen without your support.