Westfields Sports have won the Proud Shield for the first time since 1997. It has been a great effort by the players and they thoroughly deserved their victory wining 11-3 against Tamworth H.S. at Gateshead. (20/9/01)

This team has a great depth of talent and we found great coaching leadership with the addition of Wayne Finney to the team. To win a knockout competition you need to be on your game every game and Coach Finney managed to keep the players focused for every game. This final showed just how hungry we were for the title. At the top of the 2nd innings we led 3-0. Andrew Erickson, who had pitched so well in all games leading up to the final was pitching. A few good hits by Tamworth and a few judgment errors by Westfields let Tamworth score three runs to tie the game 3-3 with 2 out. David Welch, fresh from representing the Australian U/19 AAA in Taiwan replaced Andrew and got the third out. The next ten minutes broke the game right open. Safe hits to Shane Benson, Ryan Donaldson, Mathew Sundstrom and Graham Smith equated to 3 runs scored. Then came the highlight of the game. David Welch knocked one out over the center field fence for a 2-run home run. We led 8-3 and basically broke Tamworth's heart. We never let them back in, shutting them down and scoring another 3 runs to win the game 11-3.

This victory felt so good not only because it was a final but it was the culmination of a years long work. Westfields Sports are very proud to have the Shield back and we will be fighting very hard to have it remain here.

The winning squad is:
Guy Karibian (Capt.); Andrew Erickson; Dan Hills; Juan Toscano; David Welch ( Year 12 )
Matthew Byrnes; Ryan Donaldson; Paul Morrison; Patrick O'Riley; Mathew Sundstrom ( Year 11 )
Kyle Brown; Matthew Kelly; Travis Southam; Graham Smith ( Year 10 )
Jason Becker; Shane Benson; Jefry Chamorro; Mitchell Erickson ( Year 9 )