Shepparton’s Greater Valley Calisthenics brings home the goods throughout a successful 2024

The girls have produced a remarkable haul going head-to-head with Victoria’s best.

The club’s Tinies defended their title as state champions last month competing in division 5-6, going back-to-back at Victorian level.

Their Subbies team moved up to division 3 this year, coming third at state championships, while Juniors took out a clean sweep at Rich River, winning all six items and their Revue by nine points, plus running fourth in state.

Their Inters had an exceptional year, consistently performing well at competitions and ultimately taking out the state championships.

Meanwhile, the Masters also had a competitive year and placed third in the state.

Many of their soloists competed in Melbourne this year and achieved personal-best scores, a few becoming state champions in their divisions.

Barton is proud of the success on show, with booming participation numbers and a trophy cabinet starting to match.

“They trained all year to prepare them to compete across Victoria,” Barton said.

“We’re just a little regional club, but we’ve done really well this year in solo and team events in Melbourne. Additionally, first year soloists participated in our regional competitions such as our very own event in Shepparton and in the Rich River competition.

“A lot of our girls went down there for solo comps and came away as state champions. It was the same for our teams who did quite well too; sweeping the competition at Rich River doesn’t happen very often.

“It’s our 30th year as a club this year and it’s taken a lot of hard work with our coaches to get this quality of winnings.

“We have an executive committee that’s volunteering a lot of time to make all this happen and coaches who have worked tirelessly to make this season a memorable one.”

Barton hailed the collaborative spirit that helped bring the club to this milestone.

Thirty years isn’t an easy feat for any regional sports organisation which doesn’t fall into the ‘‘rusted-on’’ activities within mainstream Australian sporting culture.

For that reason, she’s nothing but appreciative of every member contributing to this swathe of success.

“Some of the pupils at this club have been doing this sport for years, whereas others have just started, so the coaches embrace working with all ages and abilities,” Barton said.

“This is my first year as president and I’ve seen that the club has grown with quite a large amount of pupils this year.

“The quality coaches who have signed up to coach at our club make a difference and just the volunteer hours people put in to make the club what it is.

“I couldn’t be prouder of everyone involved with an amazing year that we’ve had. We’ve had some young coaches coming through and I can’t wait for them to have their own teams as well.

“It’s a sport for everyone of all abilities.”