BBQ BILL WOULD BE PROUD OF GUILDFORD

Bill, the late father of Chief Executive Officer Garry Tester, would be so proud to think some 20 years on where he cooked his first BBQ for children involved in Sports Challenge that in December 2011 Guildford children again enjoyed a sausage sizzle to commemorate Bill’s love of the school.

This is where Sports Challenge started back in 1992 and since that time programs have been completed in leadership and fitness and skill development in PE, along with Professional Development of the teaching staff.

Along the way each year, Bill would find delight in cooking up a storm at the end of each program, sadly until September 2006 when he passed away. Since that time there were no more BBQs out of respect for Bill. However the first staff of Sports Challenge including Wildcats basketballers Mike Ellis and CJ Jackson rallied behind Garry as a mark of respect for Bill to re-establish the sausage sizzle.

The sausages might not have been as meticulous as Bill would have cooked, but the smiling faces of the Guildford children said it all. Thank you Bill!

SUMMIT IN DOHA, QATAR FOCUS ON TALENT ID IN SPORT

Nine time Olympic Champion Carl Lewis and Sports Challenge Chief Executive Officer Garry Tester renewed old acquaintances at the Aspire 4 Sport Conference in Doha, Qatar in November.

As a guest of the Aspire Academy, Garry Tester spoke about his world first data base of fitness and skill testing for identifying elite performers at Primary school age of 9 years to 12 years.

The data base developed since 1982 is the largest in the world with over 32,000 students tested throughout Australia and Singapore.

Garry Tester and Carl Lewis Sharing Old Times

The 7 item fitness test and 10 item skill test cover all fundamental skills required for most sporting endeavours. To easily understand the data the scores for fitness and skill are converted to a Fitness and Skill Quotient equivalent to the old IQ Scale. A mean of 100 points and standard deviations of 15 points. Therefore the pool of elite performers for fitness and skill would have scores of 130+ or two standard deviations above the mean. Scores of the very best have been recorded at 190+ points (see Sports Challenge website www.sportschallenge.com.au).

 With Delegates from all over the world attending the conference, Garry Tester highlighted how the data can not only be used for Talent ID, but for the development of physical educators and sport in schools. Further parents can receive an individual report showing how their child performed compared to the school and National means. This allows genuine ownership of fit and healthy children from community, to schools, to parents.

As Carl Lewis explained “If we can get our kids actively involved in sport at an early age, the more opportunities there are for potential Olympians to emerge and we need reliable data to measure these children”.

MUNNO PARA TURN UP THE HEAT FOR SPORTS CHALLENGE

(Story written by Ryan Harding, Sports Challenge Mentor)

With the very much appreciated support of the St George Foundation, I was lucky enough to be selected to take part in the South Australia Sports Challenge program for the third consecutive year. The team making the trip consisted of Jacqui Finnegan and Richard Heptinstall (from Perth). The other half of the lineup were making a significantly shorter flight over from Melbourne, and included myself (Ryan Harding) and the rookie of the group, or ‘pup’ as I like to call him, Andrew ‘baby face’ Diviny, on his first Sports Challenge trip.

In the past we worked with a number of different schools across the week, including Elizabeth Grove, Craigmore South and Munno Para. This year however we focused only on Munno Para Primary, who had signed up for both the Fitness and Skill Testing and the Focus Program.

Ryan Harding (Sports Challenge Mentor) revving up the students for their next challenge.

This was exciting news for me, because of all the schools I have worked with as part of the Sports Challenge program; I can honestly say that Munno Para Primary School would be close to my favourite. The staff are always kind and welcoming, and the kids bring great enthusiasm and energy to the testing and program.

Over the course of the week we tested every child in the school (barring absentees and year 7’s), and some great results were achieved. We like to encourage the kids to focus on trying their best and supporting their fellow classmates, and to their credit they generally did both of these things really well. The kids battled their way through challenging testing, including sit ups, squat jumps, backwards rolls, 12 minute runs and many more, sometimes in close to 40 degree heat!

The other part of the week involved the Focus Program, in which a group of selected students spent time with us every day learning a variety of ‘life skills’ which they can apply in their own lives. It’s always great to see the kids attitudes transform from hesitant and somewhat skeptical at the start of the program, to really coming out of their shell and taking on Leadership roles in the different activities and games.

As an added bonus we were fortunate enough to be involved in the running of the school athletics carnival. This provided another opportunity for us to see some great individual performances by the kids, as well as great encouragement and support from their peers and parents.

Overall I think that staff, students and the Sports Challenge team would all agree that the week was a great success. Special thanks to Munno Para’s Principal, and close friend of Sports Challenge, Leah Vogler, who was largely responsible for making it all happen. We would also like to thanks PE and Sport Coordinator Deb Heading who gave us all the support and assistance we could ask for.

Another memorable Sports Challenge Program!

A Parent Email – Highlighting the inclusive nature of the Sports Challenge Program

From: JFM [mailto:__________________.com.au]
Sent: Sunday, 1 August 2010 11:22 AM
To: Craig _________
Subject: Sports Challenge

Dear Craig,

I am writing to let you know how happy I have been that (school name omitted) incorporated the Sports Challenge during winter to cater for the less sporty chaps.  ________has been so much happier about the sports/PE challenges since this was instituted.  At this point his dyspraxia holds him back and a negative attitude has made things even worse and hard for him to deal with.  The sports challenge program with the emphasis on personal improvement rather than competition certainly caters much more to ________ needs. 

I am very hopeful that a similar program is continued as I know there are a number of boys that can benefit, then _______ does not feel so singled out either.  I will continue with additional help outside school as I have been.  The support and back up of the school is essential for ________ and I have noticed small but positive steps in the right direction.

Regards

______________

Kicking Goals at Wesley

Whether it be a cold and rainy Monday morning or a bright and sunny Thursday afternoon, the Sports Challenge Soccer Program shows why sport can be enjoyed on any level and by anyone. And none more important than the ever-energetic small group of Year 5 & 6 boys from Wesley College who decided to try their hand at a bit of dribbling, passing and shooting over the winter season.

 The group would meet twice a week for some ‘Sports Challenge’ activities and some soccer, all mixed in with a bit of fun. Led by Senior Mentor Richard Heptinstall, these activities worked on developing the group’s people skills by challenging them to tasks which involved high levels of leadership, teamwork and communication, and provoked their creative thinking and problem-solving skills when faced with some unique kinds of puzzles. The boys were certainly up to the challenge, being full of interesting thoughts and opinions and showing results well ahead of their age.

 The soccer brought a different sort of challenge to the boys, who were not always the most skilled when it comes to sport, and started off the program with raw, undeveloped soccer skills. But with the aid of the highly experienced soccer expert John O’Connell and having the brilliant ball control skills of Calum O’Connell to take inspiration from, the boys showed massive improvement throughout the program. This improvement not only came from general soccer skills, but also came about because of a strong emphasis from the Sports Challenge team on having the right attitude to the game and to each other. Being part of a team means making use of everyone’s ability to get the best out of the group and supporting each other when things aren’t going so well. This was something that the Wesley boys really started to understand as the program went along and by the end, showed skills in this area as good as any team around!

 Most importantly sport is about having fun and enjoying ourselves and there’s no question that everyone in the group, students and coaches, definitely had a great time. And through these great experiences and fond memories, I’m sure there will be many more goals kicked in the future!

Richard Heptinstall- 26/9/2011

A Sporting Chance in Partnership with Skywest Airlines

Published in Skywest OUTthere magazine, Issue 88 October 2011, pp 39-40.