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.

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!