Trinity Sporting Excellence Program

Last week staff members Michael Tomkins, Naomi O’Loughlin and I met with Regional Institute of Sport Director Stuart Canavan about the prospect of setting up a sports excellence program here at Trinity College.

The meeting was very positive and resulted in an agreement for Trinity to offer a program that will take place outside of school hours and will begin in Term 4 this year.

For nearly a decade Stuart developed and assisted a team of exercise professionals to work alongside many of Australia's best junior coaches from the AFL, AIS, PGA, Soccer Australia and Netball Australia.

This academy was set up at Rowville Secondary College and was developed on a unique framework of youth athletic performance and achieved world-leading results in injury prevention (no ACL injuries in 770+ athletes in the last 3 years of Stuart's ownership).

The Rowville program aligned with elite pathways in AFL, AFLW, PGA Australia, Basketball Australia, Soccer, Netball Australia, Volleyball Australia and was utilized by Western Heights College in the establishment of their more recent high school-based program. 

Outside of Stuart’s high school-based work he was the former Well-Being director for Drapac Pro Cycling, which included a team physio and performance director role with the Drapac Pro Cycling Development team 'Pats Veg Cycling'. 

Stuart is also a physiotherapist with 25 years of experience and has a unique combination of academic qualifications in physiotherapy, sports physiotherapy, high-performance sport (Masters), and pain science.

He now resides and practices in the Western District and through his work, as the Director of the Regional Institute of Sport (RIS), has assisted schools such as Mercy College - Camperdown (Sport4Life) and Colac Secondary College (Sporting Pathway Program) to offer similar programs for their students.

Stuart believes our 'regional' athletes should not feel they have to travel to larger cities for proven, world-class sports performance programs. 

Stuart is passionate about the important part that sport plays in a young person's life and truly believes that 'exercise improves life'. 

Due to the current COVID restrictions, we are unable to offer a parent/carer information evening where you can hear directly from Stuart so instead, Stuart will be recording a video and making it available, along with an application form to be part of the program.

It is important to note that the Sporting Excellence Program is not just suited to those students who are considered to be elite or high achieving, it is suitable for every student who has a desire to improve their physical fitness and is prepared to work hard. Additionally, the program is not specific to any particular sport – it will assist with all sporting endeavors.

There will be a small cost associated with the program, however this will be kept to a minimum. The program will be offered after school on a week night and each session will run for 90 minutes. Highly qualified and experienced staff will be running the program.

Students will be required to outline their reasons for wanting to be part of the program on an application form and we will be asking for them to commit to the entire term. Parents/carers will also be asked to sign the application form as part of the process.

More information as well as the video and application form will be made available within the next week. In the meantime, if you have any questions please contact myself or Michael Tomkins at the school.

Paul Clohesy, Principal