Melbourne Victory player Diogo Ferreira, centre, with Year 9 and 8 students Jake, Fax, Basil and Ty. 73213 Picture: JOE MASTROIANNI
By Vanessa Chircop
STUDENTS at Altona P-9 College have been getting up close and personal with their soccer heroes, learning life skills and making new friendships.
Five players from Melbourne Victory have been taking part in an eight session program at the school called We Can Be Heroes.
The program, which is a partnership with the Professional Footballers Association and the Department of Education, aims to teach the students respect, teamwork, fair play and leadership through a mentoring structure with the players.
The students at Altona are broken up into five groups – each group having a one of the stars as their mentor.
Physical Education teacher Sarah Curtain said the kids have really gotten to know their mentor over the eight sessions.
“They do a lot of classroom based activities and half the activities are based outside,” she said.
“They love it – they treat the player like a friend.”
Ms Curtain said at the beginning the students were a bit star-struck but have now built a good relationship with each other.
The Melbourne Victory players, who have all volunteered their time to be part of the program are Tando Velaphi, Grant Brebner, Diogo Ferreira, James Jeggo, and Rodrigo Vargas.
Tando Velaphi said this was his first year taking part in the program and he was getting a lot out of it.
“I hope the kids are getting a lot out of it too,” he said.
“It’s great to see their progression over the weeks.”
Velaphi said athletes have a lot of good values that they can pass on to young people in a positive way.
Fifteen-year-old Ryan said they players had helped him become a better Year 9 leader at his school.
“They’re really good role models,” he said.
