The Greater Building Society is proud to be a supporter of a new, Australian first program for the Hunter region’s young indigenous athletes.

A total of 17 athletes (ten boys and seven girls) aged between 14 and 17 have been selected to participate in the Hunter Academy of Sport’s first Development Program for Indigenous Athletes.

The program will initially operate across the sports of rugby league, rugby union, basketball, touch and netball.

Senior vice president of Country Rugby League NSW and co-manager of the inaugural rugby league Indigenous All Stars John Anderson have been appointed to lead the program.

Commonwealth Games discus champion and recent Greater Building Society Sports Scholarship winner, Benn Harradine, as well as former Australian Rugby League player, Laurie Daley, helped to launch the program today at the Hunter Academy of Sport.

The program will focus on personal development and sports education to meet specific needs of Indigenous athletes including training, health and fitness, self confidence and self esteem. The sports education content in the program will be supplemented by the squad members attending some of the training sessions of the academy squad relevant to their particular sport.

According to Hunter Academy of Sport CEO Ken Clifford, this is the first time a program of this kind has been run by an academy or institute of sport in Australia. 

The program is being funded by the Australian Government and its implementation supported by the Greater Building Society.

The Greater also provides 10 scholarships annually to help young athletes try to achieve their dream of representing Australia at the Olympics. It also provides the Hunter Academy with funding to:

• support other athletes and their families to meet the costs of attending programs and competing in their chosen sports
• help run the Academy’s athletics and tennis programs
• run its annual awards night.

The Greater also supports the Central Coast, Gold Coast and Northern Inland (New England) Academies of Sport.

Media information: Craig Eardley on 0437477493.