By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE Taylors Lakes Secondary College soccer academy entered both a male and female team into the Kanga Cup tournament in Canberra for the first time in its history earlier this month.
And while neither team came away with any silverware, their voyage to the capital was a significant step forward.
It helped set the platform for what program co-ordinator Chris Greechan believes is the beginning of significant growth for the academy, which kicked off in 2008.
In Greechan’s second year at the helm, the program was redeveloped at the start of the year to expand into all year levels within the school.
“By next year we’ll have a class at every year level,” Greechan said.
“We’re more about participation and maintaining participation within the sport, particularly at the critical ages of 14, 15 and 16-years-old, where some of those kids can stray away from sport and get involved in other activities.”
With similar establishments like the acclaimed sports academy run by Maribyrnong College operating nearby, Greechan enlisted his students to devise a new strategy for the program going forward.
“At the start of last year what we were finding was we were potentially losing a lot of kids to other organisations,” Greechan explained.
“So I sat down with a few kids and we looked at what it is exactly they want that will keep them engaged in the normal school environment.
“Then we put the planning process into place and got a lot of support from our principal (Geoff Pell), who has backed pretty much everything we’ve wanted to do.”
So far the program has grown to include more than 130 student-athletes, but with the goal of attracting more girls in coming years, Greechan hopes that number will soon be closer to 200.
But for Greechan, spreading the gospel of the world game means more than just increasing the numbers on the pitch.
With a program that evenly splits theoretical education – which includes coaching and administration – and the practical element of knocking the ball around, much work has been put into embracing the wider community through football.
“We’re building links with local community groups,” Greechan said.“We’re doing a project later this term on coaching and participating with clients with special needs – and putting on programs for those guys to try and give them an opportunity as well.
“So it’s not just about our kids being exposed to as much training as possible.”
