Forward 2016 | Page 24

SENIOR SCHOOL

The FIFO Coach !

Mr Travis Roost is the School ’ s Assistant to the Sports Master and Health and Physical Education teacher but he is also the Assistant Coach for the National Hong Kong Women ’ s lacrosse team .
Travis has been involved in lacrosse for the last 31 years , when at the age of seven a family friend suggested that he and his brother head down to the local primary school to try out the new game . The pair were instantly intrigued by all the gear that came along with the sport . Over the years Travis sampled many other sports , including basketball , cricket , tennis and football , but after seeing the 1990 Lacrosse World Championships played here in Perth , and watching his brother play for Western Australia in the National Championships , Travis decided that lacrosse was the sport for him !
Travis has represented the State at both junior and senior level , played for Australia in the 1996 Under 19 World Championships in Japan , and spent two seasons playing in New York at Nazareth College .
Travis soon found himself drawn to coaching , volunteering as a Year 11 and 12 student to help coach the junior teams at his local club . He attended college in the United States from 1999-2001 , where he took every opportunity to learn as much as he could about the game , watching extra footage of the games , and gleaning any information he could from the coaches , who were always happy to help . Over time Travis started preparing his own scouting reports , which he eventually gave to the coaches to use in their
weekly meetings . It was at this point that Travis really became interested in coaching .
In 2009 , while working as the Assistant Coach of the Australian Women ’ s team , he met another Travis , who was the Head Coach of Wales at the World Cup in Prague . The pair kept in contact until 2014 , when Travis from Wales was offered a Head Coach role in Hong Kong , inviting Travis to be his Assistant Coach .
Travis was invited to visit the team in Bangkok to coach them in a tournament , meet the President of the sport and complete his formal interview . Things obviously went well , as Travis is now the fly-in-fly-out coach for the Hong Kong women ’ s team !
He attends tournaments with the team in Hong Kong during the school holidays , visiting the team every 2-3 months . Next year he will spend more time in Hong Kong as the team prepares for the World Cup in July .
Looking towards the future , Travis aims to continue to grow the game in Asia and Hong Kong , but wants to focus on building a sustainable long-term high performance culture in Hong Kong , so that when he leaves the program , the team is in a better position that they were when he started . For now , he aims to continue developing contacts and networks throughout Asia to further his coaching opportunities . Long term , his goal is to teach and coach high school or college lacrosse in the United States .

Celebrating fathers and sons over breakfast

The annual FOSS Dads ’ Big Breakfast was held on the last day of Term 3 , with hundreds of dads coming out on the cold , wet morning to share breakfast with their sons .
The rain held off just long enough for breakfast to be served , but the tug-of-war was cancelled , leaving Henn ’ s House with the trophy for another year !
Our amazing events and catering team partnered up with the ladies from FOSS to serve a delicious buffet breakfast of fruit , yoghurt , pancakes , bacon and egg rolls and hash browns .
Thank you to everyone involved in making it such a special day .
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