There has been a long history of involvement in orienteering at North Sydney Boys High School, so this is a story about how we revived the tradition after the pandemic caused a hiatus of a couple of years. The key factors have been the easily accessible and family-friendly structure of the Bold Horizons Saturday Orienteering Series, the links to the sport and networks that others in the school have established in the past, and the friendliness and support of the orienteering community, including the leadership team of Garingal Orienteers and many others. In my case, connections between orienteering and running clubs also led me to find out about the sport.
A few years ago, when I was looking for something fun my son Ren could try, I noticed orienteering was one of the extracurricular activities made available to students at NSBHS by the P&C’s Falcon Sport committee. They also offered badminton, table tennis and other sports, all organised by volunteers and paid for by parents, with some administrative backing from the committee. Ren had tried "Falcon Tennis" in Year 7 but when I tried to register him for the "Falcon O” Club the following year, there was a problem. I was able to find lots of information about the sport, including how to join ONSW, but no team. We eventually learned that the Club had become inactive after Covid. Fortunately, it had been very active in the past, so there were still many people in the community who knew about it. But I didn’t come across them until later. It remained a mystery.
Ren and I had already joined ONSW (junior membership is a bargain at only $10), so I thought I’d try an event some of my running friends had mentioned, to see what it was all about. It was the last of the 22/23 Sydney Summer Series at Gordon Golf Course in March 2023. I arrived too late to compete, but I was allowed to take a map and observe the course. What fun! It wasn’t at all like a Sydney Striders race. Why were all these middle-aged men coming back to the finish area panting excessively and soaking in perspiration? Was it the first time they’d ever tried running? Had they fallen in the creek? Or was there a military-grade obstacle course somewhere on the way back? They looked knackered, about to collapse! Anyway, feeling naively confident that I could do this without breaking any kind of a sweat, I decided I would sign up for the next season. Thinking - wrongly - that nothing much happened in this sport over winter, I let my plans go into hibernation.
What prompted me again to try orienteering with my son came a whole six months later, when I saw a sign on the local Parkrun course for a Bold Horizons event at Willoughby Emerge Festival in September. One of Ren's friends was living here from overseas, so I took them both along and they enjoyed it. It also gave me a chance to ask whether anyone knew about the mysterious North Sydney Boys club, and I was introduced to Barbara Hill, the director. It turned out she had once been the President of the Falcon Sport Committee and the convenor of the Falcon O Club. After attending a few more Bold Horizons events and seeing how well they catered for school-aged children, I asked Barbara to help me get the club started at the school again. By then my son was spending a lot of time in front of video game screens and I really wanted to make sure there was an opportunity for him and other boys at the school to get some outdoor exercise without the pressure of team sport. Barbara introduced me to her contacts at the school and we managed to get some promotional material out to the new Year 7 parents in time for the 2024 season. What really helped was that Barbara had decided to kick off the year with a training event on the grounds of North Sydney Boys High, with free entry for students of the school. About a dozen came along and this gave the club a core of five or six regular competitors for the rest of 2024.
In 2024, the FalconO boys participated in Bold Horizons events six times per term, and in the winter months we were able to put together a team of five for the Metro League. I bumped into Natalie Roberts - who had been a former convenor of the school club - and she prompted me to get the FalconO club T-shirts out of storage. Garingal Club President Barbara Junghans gave us not only free club socks but also a special team name - the GO Falcons. She made everyone feel welcome, while Team Captain Jamie Kennedy got all the competitors to each venue and sent them off in the right time slot. They both made sure everyone had a good grounding in orienteering skills, with a club member on hand to debrief them after their run - thank you to Airdrie Long and others! All of the boys had great moments and very good results, and Marc Heng even ended up getting a medal for the highest individual tally in Division 6.
The FalconO team also competed at the NSW Schools Championships - a great venue at Macquarie Uni, where parents could stand on a high balcony and observe their children criss-crossing the battlefield below them. Tony Hill’s photos of active, happy kids striving for success in the relays made it into the school newsletter.
At the end of the year, Barbara helped again by arranging for some volunteers to attend the school Orientation Day and explain the sport to the parents of the new Year 7s. Airdrie Long and Paula Shingler must have been great ambassadors for the sport because suddenly we had nearly twenty expressions of interest. In Term 1, Bold Horizons made arrangements so parents at the school could send their children along to try an event, and everyone who tried it wanted to continue. There are always friendly people at these events who are able to offer tips and advice. We now have about seventeen active Club members who are being coached by Cooper Horley - a representative of Australia at JWOC and WOC. The boys are mostly Year 7s and 8s and they enjoy the social and competitive aspects, too. We haven’t been able to recruit many older boys to the Club, but I hope most of the new students will continue to participate throughout their school years and beyond. Most are yet to encounter leeches, bushland or wet weather, though...
As for managing the Club, it’s mostly just a matter of keeping up communication with the parents using apps like WhatsApp, Teamer and Google Calendar. We can thank the Bold Horizons and ONSW teams for all their hard work setting up the excellent events and competitions that keep the kids coming back. And it’s worth mentioning that the flexible start times make this sport a good option for parents whose children have more than one morning activity.
Many parents have also given the line courses at the SOS 3D events a go themselves. This sport can be fun for all ages. I remember one defining moment, back in October 2023, when I took my son on the Rivercat to try the first event of the SSS season at Rydalmere. It was rainy when we started and dark by the time we completed the course. Wow! I really loved the score format and I was hooked for the rest of the season. But Ren, sensing my enthusiasm, told me immediately how much he hated it. He still completed the course, but that first wet, dark and heavily-penalised episode designed for his father’s legs must have really scarred him! He’s reluctant to come to another one. Luckily his Japanese friend really likes orienteering, so whenever he wants to try a competition, my son has a reason to come along too. I hope Ren will try more events this year - it’s such a great sport to do all through your life. Even better to do it with a friend.
Oliver Wellings
