NORTHERN Inland Academy of Sport chief James Cooper has embarked on a busy schedule following the start of the new year’s program with an induction and growth day in Armidale last weekend.
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This year, NIAS has added basketball and girls’ football squads to the academy, as well as bringing rugby league back from a 16-year hiatus, after the successful inclusion of AFL and rugby last year.
“We will have 10 sports and 14 squads this year,”Cooper said.
“We inducted 198 athletes which is brilliant and had over 350 applications across the board.”
While Cooper doesn’t serve on any selection panels he said that is one of the toughest jobs for coaches and selectors every year, although it can all serve as a great motivator for some up and coming stars.
“Sometimes the coaches are there with the profiles of two athletes for one spot and it could be the tiniest thing that gets one over the line,” Cooper said.
“The message we are pushing for the kids who miss out is to keep working,” Cooper said.
“No one is guaranteed a place next year so keep training and working hard.”
All sports in this year’s program are aligned with a state or national body, making the pathways to a sporting career even more defined and available for country teenagers.
Rugby league is aligned with the CRL, netball with Netball NSW and hockey with Hockey NSW, with the trend across all sports.
“By doing this we have created genuine pathways,” Cooper said.
This year the netball squad even has a tour of New Zealand lined up for October but, as all squads head into their first coaching sessions, the focus is on the Academy Games, to be held at the Central Coast this year on April 9/10.
For Cooper and his team, the build-up to that weekend couldn’t be more hectic, with the NIAS-run National Primary School Games being held in Tamworth on the same dates.
Last year the Primary Games attracted over 1500 primary students from right across NSW and southern Queensland and Cooper wants to start shifting those boundaries even further as the carnival gathers pace.
“If I can get 1500 again I will be happy but we also want to start gradually increasing the boundaries and growing the Games,” he said.
“It is going to be a pretty busy few months with the two carnivals scheduled for the same weekend but we really want to nail the Primary School Games and make it a feature of the calendar and of the Academy.”
