PIC SAVED AS ACADEMY
By Rebecca Fraser
RISING sports stars at Hallam’s Eumemmerring Secondary College now have a sporting chance of success with news that the school’s elite coaching program will continue next year.
Three teachers launched the Sports Academy of Excellence this year in an educational first for the region.
The academy provides students with elite coaching in both Australian Rules Football and cricket as part of their formal studies.
Various elite sports bodies with which the college has formed strong ties conduct the coaching, and next year the innovative program will be extended to offer students coaching in basketball, rugby and soccer.
The partnerships include ties with Football Victoria and the Dandenong Stingrays, Cricket Victoria, the Dandenong Basketball Association and Dandenong Rangers, Rugby League Victoria and the Football Federation Victoria.
The academy caters for both boys and girls and their sports studies are academically accredited as a Victorian Education and Training (VET) course.
Students are coached by elite identities from the sport and directed towards tertiary courses and industry pathways connected to their chosen sports.
Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) student manager Keith Pimblett said staff at the college supported the coaches by providing back-up at training, and formally coaching the college teams in competition.
He said all staff who participated in the program had nationally accredited coaching qualifications in their sport. Students interested in becoming a student of the sports academy go through a screening process and must meet the criteria set by college and the participating sporting body, and high performance is a key expectation.
Mr Pimblett said as well as receiving VCE course counselling and study counselling, sports academy students could participate in school-based apprenticeships that the college accessed through its close links with private industry.
These apprenticeships can be in the form of manufacturing and building or more closely associated with the sport and recreation industry, however their aim is the same.
“That being to provide our students with a career framework once they have finished their association with Eumemmerring College,” Mr Pimblett said.
Minister for Sport and Recreation Justin Madden last Friday said the sports academy would provide support and training programs in basketball, soccer, Australian Rules football, cricket and rugby league.
“This academy will support students to develop their sporting talents whilst still maintaining focus on their academic studies,” he said.
Each of the sports programs run in partnership with local sports clubs and state sporting associations to help students build pathways into their chosen sport at elite level.
Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan said the academy was a much-needed facility in the growing Casey community.
“The academy will create even more opportunities for young locals to get involved in sport and recreation,” he said.
“This is a great way to further develop the potential of our young sports people.”
