Academy rallies behind its young sporting talent
Young sporting achievers are receiving valuable assistance from the Upper Clutha Junior Sports Academy.
The academy was started four months ago by the Upper Clutha Sports Community and Mount Aspiring College.
The region’s sporting leaders wanted promising youth in the area to be given more opportunities to reach their goals.
Aspiring Athletics Club president Bronwyn Coers and Diana Schikker, who has been involved in community sport for 35 to 40 years, are in charge of the academy.
It is designed for 13 to 16-year-olds from a variety of sports.
‘‘It’s for talented kids to come together and get support and, hopefully, it leads them to pathway programmes and other Otago academies,’’ Coers said.
She added young teenagers with sporting talent needed nurturing and direction.
‘‘They can lose momentum with sport, fall behind and find something else to do.’’
Having access to a wide range of speakers, high performance coaches and equipment in Wanaka would help retain students in the region, and stop some from moving to city boarding schools, Coers said.
The academy’s 10 sessions a year are held before and after school, as well as overnight camps.
Topics include mental skills, nutrition, goal setting and understanding winning and losing.
Peter Wardell, who is New Zealand Chef de Mission for the Winter Olympic team, spoke to students recently.
He told them his experiences and observations at the Olympics and what it required to compete at the elite level.
Wardell, appointed for the PyeongChang Olympics in 2018, was with the New Zealand team at Sochi (last year) and Vancouver (2010).
Wanaka sports people Dougal Allan, Jon Andrews and Katharine Eustace, and Hawea’s Jenny Ferguson, also shared their knowledge with the academy’s students.
Allan, an international multisports athlete, is pleased to support the academy.
‘‘The academy gives kids belief in themselves, and that anything is possible,’’ Allan said.
A physiotherapist, Eustace was a New Zealand skeleton racer at the Winter Olympics at Sochi and earlier ran for the Great Britain junior track team at international meets.
Ferguson played netball for Southern Sting and Otago Rebels and is former New Zealand A captain.
Andrews cycled at the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
The 21 academy students were selected by a five-member panel made up of Eustace, Coers, Mount Aspiring rugby coach Hamish Crosbie, Mount Aspiring teacher Jess Zeestraten and Snow Sports New Zealand chief executive Martin Toomey.
Not all of Upper Clutha’s best young sports people are in the academy. Adam Hewson, football and futsal. Alex Plimmer, football and tennis. Ben Hadida, football and futsal. Ben Harrington, skiing (freestyle) and football. Caitlin Gibson, netball and dance. Ella Maluschnig , cross-country skiing and biathlon. Ellesse Andrews, track cycling and netball. Ethan Kerr, rugby and mountainbiking. Fiona Murray, skiing and running. Grace Thomson, equestrian and dressage. Gregor Findlay, triathlon and rugby. Holly Wigg, karate and netball. Jasmine Murray, swimming and netball. Jessa Bennett, climbing. Louis Jones, cross-country skiing and rugby.
Maggie Little, skiing (freestyle) and athletics.
Matthew Prince, triathlon and mountainbiking. Melanie Telford, hockey and athletics. Phoebe Young, mountainbiking and triathlon. Phoenix Apa, rugby and touch. Samantha Burke, athletics and hockey.