Bathurst's sports stars get a boost with new academy dealWestern Advocate - Aug 3 2020
https://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/6861061/bathursts-sports-stars-get-a-boost-with-new-academy-deal/?src=rssWRAS joins 10 other regional academies of sport in forming a partnership with the NSW Institute of Sport.
COMMENT -
This is Great News - but you have to wonder what happen to earlier partnerships- and why wouldn’t there be a partnership such as this previously?
After the Sydney Olympics the WRAS was given High Performance Centre status, fully funded by the NSWIS Mobile Services Program - an initiative introduced by then Minister John Watkins in Nov 2000. Why have these partnerships disappeared over the years?
I believe parents of young sportspeople have never done it so hard – and its showing in Junior Sport numbers. Seriously you have to be so grateful for the Bathurst Junior Sporting Grants.
There is no better stimulus spending for Government than sport; specifically grass roots sport; plus in these times of the covid19 virus wouldn’t it make sense to assist our motivated & determined young athletes in their home areas via their regional programs.
Please don’t think I am criticizing the State Institutes or Regional academies, no it’s quite the opposite, these organisations are about getting today’s kids on their feet and chasing a dream, and that has never been so important. Sport & Rec. along with the Institutes and the academies should seriously be called the Department of Health - while the Medical & Health authorities should be referred to as the Department of Sickness…. and it has never been so important to look at Health.
To me these sporting programs have been cut down and streamlined – and the bureaucracy is simply looking for more efficient, cost effective ways of finding the talented kids for the elite sports programs; which is not only wrong, but doesn’t work in the long run. What we should be doing is providing the support and stimulus for bigger junior participation, instead of investing in a few hand selected kids. We should be integrating support & development programs.. and encouraging heaps of kids to grow strong in healthy local sporting competitions.. and get our stars further down the track from a bigger pool.