the best place to live - City of Greater Geelong

the best place to live. www.geelongaustralia.com.au
www.geelongaustralia.com.au
OCTOBER 2008 the best place to live 17
A Fairfax Media Custom Publication
New kid on the blocks
Barwon Sports
Academy is
helping young
athletes reach
higher levels
in their sport
It might be the new kid on
the block but Barwon Sports
Academy is already achieving
considerable success and
rapid growth – great news for
promising athletes who are still
at school.
Barwon, one of six regional
sports academies in Victoria,
provides programs and pathways
for junior athletes to reach a high
level in their sport, whether in
state, national or international
competition.
The chief executive of Leisure
Networks, Jill Evans, who helped
set up the academy, says its aim
was to help young local athletes
who were travelling to the
Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS)
in Melbourne.
“We felt that it would be better
for them to train in Geelong
so they could stay at home and
remain connected to their own
sporting clubs,” Ms Evans says.
Based at Sports House,
with access to the sporting and
educational facilities of Skilled
Stadium, the academy also uses
Geelong’s other high-level training
facilities such as Kardinia
Pool and the baseball centre.
Although the academy’s main
focus is to develop elite performance,
it has a wider role in the
sporting community.
“We are a big enough regional
centre to offer something to
young athletes, particularly from
sports where infrastructure to
support them is not so strong,”
Ms Evans says. “There are really
good pathways for the mainstream
sports such as football,
netball, cricket and tennis so we
were looking at sports where
there wasn’t that clear pathway,
such as basketball and soccer.”
Since inducting its first athletes
in January 2008, the Barwon
Sports Academy has expanded
rapidly. It supports four sports –
athletics, swimming, basketball
live:
and badminton – as well as a
number of individual scholarship
holders in water skiing, gymnastics,
ice hockey and karate.
From January 2009, four new
sports will be added – gymnastics,
soccer, netball and cricket.
With a couple of individuals from
triathlon and cycling also joining,
the numbers will be boosted to
about 100.
The academy’s chief executive,
Aaron Greaves, explains the benefits
for athletes of being part of
the academy. They still train with
their own coaches and sporting
Monique takes the hurdles
in her stride
Hurdler Monique Booth at training in Geelong.
clubs, and the academy provides
specialist coaching as well as
strength and conditioning training
through a partnership with
the Victorian Fitness Academy.
Athletes are also given uniforms
and training gear. A sports
medicine network, which includes
about 50 providers around
Geelong, offers consultations at
discounted rates.
Mr Greaves coordinates a program
of sports and personal development
with monthly sessions
on everything from nutrition
and flexibility training to resume
Living at Jan Juc on the Surf
Coast, 19-year-old hurdler
Monique Booth belongs to
the Geelong Athletics Club and
makes the 50-kilometre return trip
to Geelong for training six nights
a week. The start of the athletics
season this month means her
schedule will change, to training
five nights a week and competing on
Saturdays.
Monique completed year 12 last
year and has taken a year off from
study. She is working in two jobs and
plans to go to university next year.
Her events are sprints (100 and
200 metres) and hurdles. In 2004,
Monique was national champion in
the 200-metre hurdles and second in
the 90-metre hurdles. In 2005, she
ran for Victoria in the Pacific School
Games. She has also competed
in winning sprint relay teams at
national championships.
Monique’s goals for next year
are to break 12 seconds for the
100 metres and to improve her
hurdle times.
She has been at the Barwon
Sports Academy since the start
of this year. She sees the benefits
as having access to the Geelong
Football Club gym and other facilities
around Geelong, and the discounted
physiotherapy services available
through the academy.
Athletes from different sports
attend the academy’s strength and
conditioning training together. They
benefit from meeting other athletes
and seeing how hard they work.
Next year Monique can look
forward to completing her Level 1
coaching qualification and Certificate
III and IV in fitness, with support
from the academy. With these
qualifications, she will be well placed
to visit schools and sporting clubs to
run programs for younger athletes.
writing and stress management.
“We recognise that all of the
kids here are working at a state
level and they are fantastic hurdlers,
basketballers or swimmers,
but we don’t just want to push
the sporting side; we are very
much about developing a holistic
approach and getting the whole
package,” he says.
Most of the scholarship holders
are aged between 14 and 18;
the youngest is gymnast Emily
Ramsay, 10.
For older students such as
Monique Booth, the academy
will help them gain coaching
qualifications and fitness certification
through the Victorian Fitness
Academy so that they can run
programs for the next generation
of athletes.
“We acknowledge that the
community really supports us and
we want to be seen to be giving
back to the community through
the next lot of kids,” Mr Greaves
says. “Through partnership arrangements,
local businesses and
the local community are putting
into the academy because they
are really seeing the benefits.
“It really helps us that we
maintain those strong relationships
and are seen to be giving
back and supporting the community.
We are the youngest
academy, but we have a great
talent pool.”
To be eligible to be part of
the academy, students must
satisfy minimum state-level
criteria – they must have made
a state squad or a state side,
have state ranking or have been
to national championships
representing Victoria.
Of the academy’s 51 athletes,
14 have competed this
year at world championships or
the Paralympics.
As well as the elite young
athletes who benefit from its
program, the academy also helps
other sports in the region. “We
have worked with golf and water
polo in the local region to provide
a junior structure and framework
– we work in a partnership with all
those sports,” Mr Greaves says.
Recently, the academy set up
a football development program
as a pathway for young Geelong
Football League players to develop
their skills or move to a higher
level. The eight-week pilot program
attracted 30 players from 10
GFL clubs.
a www.barwonsportsacademy.org.au
Australia’s largest multisport festival, the Australian Masters Games, is coming to the Geelong region, 20 February – 1 March 2009.
For more information: www.australianmastersGames.com