Sport organisations and schools are making full use of the vast facilities at the EIT Institute of Sport of Health run by HBCFCT.

The facilities including courts, high performance gym with expert strength and training coaches, lecture room and café, are being well utilised by the likes of Hastings Boys’ High School Hauora Rugby Academy, Horizons Basketball Academy – run by Everard Bartlett, a Woodford House academy and a hockey academy by Shea McAleese, one of New Zealand’s most capped hockey players.

Shea puts a squad of 25 up and coming players through their paces twice a week with the Institute’s strength and conditioning coaching team. The training is funded thanks to Grassroots Pub Charity and Shea says all the squad members enjoy the facilities.  Having toured and played throughout the world Shea is also a big fan of the Institute’s facilities.  “For me it has the potential to be the best multi-sport facility in New Zealand and there’s still room for more.”

Everard Bartlett says his academy athletes get inspired every time they arrive for training, due to the many other high performance athletes also using the facilities.  “What I notice is the internal motivation kids get when they see so many other athletes under one roof.  They feed off each other’s energy and my academy athletes can see that they are not the only ones putting in the hard work and sacrificing their sleep. For me, we take great pride in the academy being professionally run and HBCFCT aligns well with our values and vision for Hawke’s Bay sport development” he says.

The HBHS Hauora Rugby Academy, a holistic development programme for year 10-13 students is also being delivered at the Trust’s Sport Excellence Hub at Mitre 10 Park in Hastings.  The programme has been co-designed by the school with HBCFCT Sport & Health Performance Manager Joe Payton.  Hastings Boys’ High School head of rugby Tafai Ioasa says the aim of the academy is to create well-rounded individuals who positively contribute to the community and are driven to succeed in their careers outside of rugby.  “We are using rugby as a vehicle to engage our Rangitahi to contribute positively to society and to equip them with the skills, discipline, knowledge and attitude to succeed in rugby as well as in life outside of sport” said Tafai.  “Our sports academies have been successful in achieving success on and off the field, but we wanted to add another layer on top of our current academies to compete with the opportunities that other schools are offering their students.”

HBCFCT provides strength and conditioning sessions that focus on developing equal parts of physical attributes such as strength, power and speed with performance characteristics of communication, team building, leadership and resilience.  “The sessions are designed to enhance training both at school and elsewhere via education and help grow awareness and reinforce to our students the importance of fitness and wellbeing,” said Joe.