EISM History

The first instance of the Independent Schools in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne coming together is in 1964. The 5 foundation member schools were:

Aquinas College (Ringwood)	St Leos College (Box Hill)
Kingswood College (Box Hill)	Whitefriars College (Donvale)
Luther College (Croydon)

Initially the competition was for boys only, and the only sport offered was Australian Rules Football. It developed rapidly to include Athletics, Cross-Country and Swimming carnivals, Cricket, Tennis, and Debating. These competitions were held on Saturdays. It was called the Eastern Independent Schools Association.

The 1966 Swimming carnival was held at Croydon Memorial Pool on Saturday March 5th, commencing at 7.30pm. Competition was in the evening and by 1966 there were 8 schools competing:

Aquinas College (Ringwood)	St Josephs College (Ferntree Gully)
Kingswood College (Box Hill)	St Leos College (Box Hill)
Luther College (Croydon)	St Thomas More College (Forest Hill)
Salesian College (Chadstone)	Whitefriars College (Donvale)

The 1967 carnival saw Yarra Valley become involved, and they competed in the 1968 carnival as well. They left the association after this time. The 1968 carnival was the first occasion that Mazenod College (Mulgrave) was involved with the EISM. They took the place of Salesian College who moved on to the ACC.

There was a push for girls to have access to inter-school sport, and after extensive meetings in 1970 the following schools formed the Eastern Independent Girls Schools Association (EIGSA):

Aquinas College (Ringwood)	Mt Lilydale College (Lilydale)
Chavoin College (Burwood)	Mt Scopus Memorial Coll. (Burwood)
Huntingtower (Mt Waverley)	Our Lady of Sion (Box Hill)
Luther College (Croydon)

Tennis, Softball and a Swimming carnival were contested for the first time in the 1971 season. Matches were conducted on a school afternoon.

The Boys by this stage had included Soccer, Basketball and Table Tennis into their sporting fixtures. Huntingtower joined the boy’s section of the EISM in 1971, but the boy’s competition and the girl’s competition were run as two entirely different entities.

The organizing of the EISM was on a rotational basis with each school having their Head of Sport act as the Secretary for 12 months. This was satisfactory for a short while, but it soon became apparent that a permanent Sports Association Secretary would need to be employed. This position became effective from 1977. The initial appointment was Mr George Wilson, Head of Sport at Kingswood College. George held the position of EIS Secretary until the end of 1998. He had been involved with the EISM since its inception and gave the Association expert leadership and guidance in his time there. George was the one constant in the EISM during the many changes that occurred over the years. His innovations and guidance have seen the EISM grow to become the ‘Premier Midweek Co-Education Sporting Competition’.

Part of the original intention of the EISM was for it to have a cultural component for the boys. This took the form of a Music Festival. Students from all schools would meet at a central venue and give a performance. The girls also had the opportunity to do this as well as participate in a Drama festival.

1977 saw changes within the EIGSA. Mater Christi (Belgrave) began competing at the start of that year but opted out of the association in September of the same year. Kingswood sought membership of the EIGSA, whilst Aquinas notified the association that they would not compete in 1978. It was also the year that moves were initiated to combine the boys and girls competitions, with the 2 meeting formally in the middle of Term 2, 1978. After 12 months of joint meetings, the motion “That there be an amalgamation of E.I.S.A. with E.I.G.S.A. to form one association” was put to the Principals meeting on the 8th August 1979. The motion was defeated. An alternative motion was then put which established a committee of Principals and Sports teachers whose task was to investigate the special needs of schools and draw up a draft set of rules and regulations. The second draft of this committee had the name of the association as the ESISA, The Eastern Suburban Independent Schools Association. Eventually, the name Association of Eastern Independent Schools was agreed upon in April 1980.

The year 1978 was the year when boys first played their matches on weekday afternoons. In 1978 there were 13 full member schools of the EIS. A further 3 schools were associate members and could compete in carnivals. Schools were also given invitations to attend carnivals and Parkmore College and St Anne’s and Gippsland Grammar School accepted this invitation during the 1980’s.

The associate schools were:

• Billanook College (Mooroolbark)
• Eltham College (Eltham)
• St Leonards College (Brighton)

The above associate schools became full members in due course. John-Paul College (Frankston) entered the EIS in 1979 and remained until 1986 when they concentrated on the SIS competition.

It was in 1982 that the Drama component of EISM discontinued due to a lack of involvement from member schools.

With regard to the contact between the EISA and EIGSA, it was deemed that there should be 2 divisions of Boys’ schools for carnivals and 1 division for girls. In the first year of 2 divisions, the larger schools were placed in Division 2, and schools with a smaller enrolment were placed in Division 1. This changed for the 1980 carnivals, with Division 1 being the larger schools’ competition. 1980 also saw the return of Aquinas girls to competition.

In 1987, Yarra Valley re-entered the EIS, this time with their girls as participants. St Bedes (Mentone) and Kingswood College (Doncaster), were also admitted at this time. Kingswood Doncaster stayed in the EIS until the end of 1989.

A number of schools were interested in after-school sport for their students, and 7 schools competed in a Junior competition (Years 7 & 8) on a Tuesday and Intermediate competition (Years 9 & 10) on a Thursday. This competition ran from 1989 to 1993. The schools initially involved were: Mt Scopus, Sion, Kingswood, Emmaus, Luther, Billanook, Kingswood (Doncaster). The matches were scheduled for the times of 3.30pm to 4.45pm.

In 1991, Loyola College (Bundoora) and Knoxfield College (Wantirna South) entered the EIS. St Leos College, a founding member of the EIS, closed in 1994 due to a fall in student numbers. The late 90’s saw significant changes to the composition of the member schools of the association. Bialik College and Donvale Christian College joined in 1996, and when Rudolf Steiner (Warranwood), Plenty Valley Christian School and Williamstown and Westbourne Grammar (Hoppers Crossing) joined in 1997, the EIS had 25 member schools.

1997 was the last year of involvement for Eltham, Loyola, St Leonards, St Michaels and Williamstown & Westbourne. They formed a new association, the Association of Co-Education Schools (ACS) starting in 1998. St Bedes were affiliated with two associations and decided to continue only with their ACC commitment. Sion also left the association at the end of 1997, opting to do without sport for a year. Part of the reason for the dramatic shift in schools at this time was the release of the Shilbury report in the January of 1998. Schools had expressed concerns in 1997 about distances travelled, time of day that sport was being played and the place of sport in the school curriculum. The recommendations of the Shilbury report were for the EIS to aspire to be the ‘premier midweek co-educational sporting competition’. It also went on to suggest that decisions needed to be made as to the geographical area that the EIS should be servicing, and the co-educational nature of member schools entering the EIS.

Two new schools joined in 1998, Alphington Grammar School and Oakleigh Greek Orthodox College. At the end of that year, Whitefriars, a founding member, Salesian and Mazenod all went across to the ACC.

1998 was the final year of George Wilson’s tenure as Sports Secretary. Steve Kenworthy took up the appointment of Executive Officer at the start of 1999 and continued in this position until the end of 2019.

The Yarra Valley girls and boys competed in a different association, (AGSV) at their school. When the AGS and APS formed a girl’s competition with girls from both associations playing weekly sport, they opted to join this combined sporting entity.

The final name change for the association occurred on November 11th 1999. The name now being Eastern Independent Schools Melbourne Inc. (EISM).

In 2001, Nunawading Adventist College and Lilydale Adventist Academy joined the EISM. The Tintern Schools (Ringwood) followed them in 2003 and The King David School (Armadale) in 2004.

In 2008, Oxley College entered the association. The Central Division was divided into two equal conferences with Alphington, Donvale, Lilydale, Nunawading, Oxley, Plenty Valley & Rudolf Steiner going into the Northern conference and Bialik, Huntingtower, King David, Kingswood, Knox and OGOC in the Southern conference. The top team in each conference plays off in the final.

Tintern girls had competed in the EISM carnivals since 2003 but had restricted their weekly sport involvement to the GSV competition. From 2010 onwards all Tintern students competed in EISM for weekly sport and carnivals. 2010 also saw Eltham College re-enter the EISM after several years with the ACS competition.

Lilydale Adventist Academy had 10 years membership with the EISM. Sadly, they moved across to another association that catered for smaller schools at the end of 2010.

Kilvington Girls Grammar went co-educational at the beginning of 2012 and to provide sport for their boys they joined the EISM from Girls Sport Victoria (GSV). They became the 22nd school in the association.

In 2013, the EISM instituted a third Division for weekly sport to be named the Southern Division. The Eastern Division is for schools with student enrolments over 600. The Central Division is for schools with 400 – 600 students and Southern Division schools have fewer than 400 students. The Southern Division schools will contest weekly sport in a stand-alone competition for most sports but there are still several sports that will be offered to both Central and Southern schools. In Cross Country, the Southern Division will be contesting for their own specific individual awards and trophies.

It was with sadness that St Josephs advised EISM that they would be joining ACC in 2017. St Josephs was a founding member of the then EIS. The school had experienced significant growth in numbers in recent years and was a consistent performer in all sports. The EISM wished them well in their new venture.

The EISM office was initially located at Kingswood. It then moved to Billanook in the early 90’s before moving to Aquinas in 1999. From 2010 the office was at Luther before moving again to Emmaus (Burwood campus) at the end of 2019.

The EISM was delighted to announce the appointment of Nathan Bower to the position of Executive Officer, to commence in 2020. Nathan has a background with AFL and Cricket Australia and brings a wealth of knowledge to the position.

2020 and 2021 were challenging years for the EISM due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 restrictions. The Central and Eastern Division naming conventions were alternated from the 2008 model from 2021 onwards to better reflect the geographical location of the competing member schools for each Division. The 7 largest schools (by student numbers) were combined to create the Central Division whereas the remaining 14 schools were combined into the Eastern Division that was made up of a North and a South Conference of 7 schools each depending on school location.

A post-COVID consolidation phase from 2022 allowed the Association to see the new Divisional Structure in action for the first time. The association implemented its tiered structure of weekly sport engagement offering compulsory ‘A’ competitions and optional ‘B’ and Recreational competitions for Schools to engage at a level they are comfortable with. It was pleasing to all to see students engaging in sport without the threat of COVID implications hanging over our schools.

In mid-2022, Nathan Bower informed the EISM Board that he would be leaving the association to pursue another opportunity within the sports industry. The Board embarked on a thorough process for recruiting Nathan’s replacement, and were delighted to appoint Marissa Fillipou to the role. Marissa brings a wealth of experience to the EISM, including roles at the Australian Institute of Sport, Gymnastics Victoria, Netball Victoria and the AFL Players’ Association, before spending three years as the Head of Sport Program and Operations at Caulfield Grammar School. Marissa also has a background as a High Performance Basketball Coach, having coached the Australian Under 17 Women’s Team at two FIBA World Championships.

With Marissa Fillipou taking six months Maternity Leave in the first half of 2023 following the birth of her second child, Interim Executive Officer, Noel Stevens steered the association through a challenging start to the year. Through the year, schools continued to provide feedback regarding challenges with the multi-faceted fixture, extensive travel requirements and high bus and staffing costs, as well as the inherent difficulties associated with schools of varying size competing in the same Divisions.

In late 2023, the EISM embarked upon an independently led Governance, Structural and Strategic Review designed to address these issues and set the association up for the future. This work will continue in to 2024.