Tournament forges friendships

IN the past eight weeks a tournament on the basketball court of Leongatha Secondary College has forged some unexpected friendships set to continue beyond the sport.
Coordinated by the year 12 Vocational Education Training sports and recreation students the Junior United Mentor Program is designed to encourage children with special needs to develop a passion for sport with a focus on basketball.
Every week students from South Gippsland Specialist School have been attending the secondary college to learn the many skills involved in basketball, including point scoring, making teams and how to write a team ladder.
VET sports and recreation teacher Lucy Bowman said the year 12 students have taken a very active role in developing the program for the specialist school students.
“It’s excellent to see our students really step up to the role of mentoring these children with special needs,” she said.
“The year 12’s have worked very hard to develop JUMP whether it’s teaching the physical skills of basketball like dribbling or teaching how to coach or referee.
“This is the second year we have been able to direct students to prepare most of the program and it is rewarding to see the bonds that have formed between the students.”
Leongatha Secondary College teacher Katherine Roberts said JUMP was linked with the Leongatha Basketball Association to allow mentored students the chance to take part with other kids in basketball.
“It’s about getting children with special needs involved with sport beyond the school,” she said.
“Sometimes people can take for granted certain sport skills and JUMP is about making sure children with special needs know them and can enjoy the sport.”
South Gippsland Specialist School teacher Cheryl Brennan said the program pushed the students out of their comfort zone.
“With their love of basketball they can look up to their mentors and see that they can do it too,” she said.
“The mentors are great; they adapted the game to match each child’s needs.
“Some skills they get from this program are team sport skills, sportsmanship and social skills and it forms a good link between the schools. Most of the students do want to do it again and share the skills they have learnt.”

Friendly hoops: the team of Samara Taranto, Chloe Hogg, Noah Rowley, Ethan Lavis, Liam O’Neill and Napleon Ducan were able to receive their place on the JUMP shield.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Jul 3 2018. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry