Burdon: Why Academy Southland is more than sport
Burdon: Why Academy Southland is more than sport
Academy manager Jason McKenzie is adamant that the programme is as much about setting athletes up for life as it is about setting them up for success in their chosen codes.
Sporting success is really only half the story when it comes to SBS Bank Academy Southland.
Since 2004 the two-year programme has been supporting many of the province’s best young athletes to be the best they can be, playing an integral role alongside their parents and wider families, schools, coaches, regional and national sporting bodies, sponsors and community funders.
Graduates have made the most of the mental skills training, athlete life advice, nutrition support and strength and conditioning coaching through the Mike Piper Training Centre, going on to achieve on the national and international stage.
That sporting achievement has included Commonwealth Games, world championship and Olympic success.
Academy athletes will feature strongly again in this year’s ILT Southland Sports Awards when they are unveiled on June 9.
The past four winners of the senior sportsperson of the year title are Academy graduates, while almost all of the winners of the junior sportsperson of the year category since the Academy began have had an association with the programme.
However, like I said at the top, sporting achievement is only half the story.
Academy manager Jason McKenzie is adamant that the programme is as much about setting athletes up for life as it is about setting them up for success in their chosen codes.
A quick scan of past Academy athletes is pretty inspiring, although the Academy support team are quick to point out that they are just part of the puzzle when it comes to fulfilling potential.
It maybe doesn’t take a village, but having a great support network is often a key aspect of a high performing athlete.
Along with the gold medals and bold-type headlines, the Academy is equally proud of the likes of Aaron Barclay, a Youth Olympic gold medallist in triathlon, who has set up a successful chiropractic business in Invercargill.
Or Anna Rankin, a Commonwealth Games badminton representative, who is now a physiotherapist in Invercargill.
It’s no coincidence both provide services to the Academy programme and speak highly of the impact it had on their development as athletes and people.
The number of Southlanders heading to the United States for successful college careers has accelerated and includes - but is by no means restricted to - Atipa Mabonga and Hannah Miller (athletics - both initially at Southern Methodist University), Jack Beaumont (athletics - University of North Texas), Michael Zhang (table tennis - Duke), Morgan Hunter (basketball -Miami University) and Sammy Murrell (football - Harvard).
Hamish Tomlinson narrowly missed out on bronze with the New Zealand pursuit team at the 2009 junior world track cycling championships in Moscow, but went on to win a Rhodes Scholarship and graduate from Oxford University.
The stories are many and varied.
Laura Overton, a talented netball player and javelin thrower, has a media role with the New Zealand Olympic committee. Amongst those mentioned earlier, Zhang graduated to a job at Microsoft, Mabonga has joined the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs and Miller, when she isn’t winning national titles on the road and track, works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Former cyclist Eddie Dawkins, arguably Southland’s most successful individual athlete of all time, owns his own gym business and fellow former trackie Cathy Peters is these days the general manager of COIN South, helping Southlanders achieve their own business visions.
And all this is really just a snapshot of what Academy graduates have gone onto achieve in life.
There are many more great stories which highlight the programme’s vision of ‘Achieving Southlanders, Inspiring Southlanders’.