Investing in athlete excellence Gippsland Sports Academy

For close to three decades, the Gippsland Sports Academy has been helping talented local athletes reach their full potential in their chosen sport and personal life.

Words, Chris West,

Now in its 28th year of operation, the Gippsland Sports Academy has a proud history as a high performance centre of excellence creating pathways and delivering quality outcomes for young athletes throughout the region.

The academy’s services are provided on a platform built on three levels — full sport programs, service delivery programs and individual athlete programs.

Past graduates of the academy include 2008 Olympic silver medal winning swimmer Ash Delaney, 2024 gold medal winning Paralympic swimmer Emily Beecroft OAM, and professional basketballer Jack White, who is currently on the roster at Bayern Munich in Germany after previously winning an NBA championship in America with the Denver Nuggets in 2013.

Despite these and many other notable success stories amongst thousands of athletes it has helped develop, the Gippsland Sports Academy has often been a quiet achiever and flown under the radar. A shift towards wider public recognition and awareness is something the academy has in its sights, with the desire to build a powerful brand identity being one of the key platforms of its 2024–2027 strategic vision unveiled last year.

The academy currently supports nearly 300 Gippsland-based athletes and offers access to 11 different programs incorporating a wide range of sports — swimming, netball, tennis, golf, volleyball, hockey, taekwondo and clay target shooting — along with three separate programs, which carry a sport science component only — the Individual Scholarship Holders (ISH) program, the VRAS Para Sport Project and the Kurnai school program.

Swimming was the first sport to be introduced in the academy’s inaugural year, whilst more recently the hockey program started in 2024 and taekwondo was added this year. With some exceptions, the programs are generally designed for athletes aged from 12 up to 18. Each sport has its own specific entrance eligibility criteria and varying training requirements.

The academy provides participants with access to experienced, toplevel coaches and a range of specialised services in sports science and medicine including strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, psychology, nutrition and diet. These services are intended to supplement the coaching and support the athletes receive away from the academy with their clubs or in their private training.

A not-for-profit organisation, the Gippsland Sports Academy receives the majority of its funding from the State Government via the Victorian Institute of Sport and at Local Government level through the six shire councils in the Gippsland region. Sponsorships from the local business and sporting communities also provide another vital form of financial support to the academy. “We are one of six sports academies located around regional Victoria,” Gippsland Sports Academy Executive Officer, Anita Pistrin explains. “The six regional academies are connected in that we are all funded by the State Government and have a number of programs in common,” she adds.

The Gippsland Sports Academy is governed by an eight-member voluntary Board chaired by Sandra Timmer-Arends. The academy’s operations are managed by Anita Pistrin in her role as Executive Officer, ably supported by Finance/ Administration Officer, Rebecca Wagner and Program/Admin Officer, Jude Bergmann. “We work well as a team, and all roll up our sleeves to chip in where needed. If something needs doing, it needs doing and we are always willing to help each other,” Anita says. Having commenced her involvement with the academy in 2011 in the Finance role, Anita was promoted to the Executive Officer position in November 2018. An advocate for continual improvement, Anita aspires for all athletes to be proud of being in the academy and feel they’ve become better for it.

The administration office is located in an old school hall on the grounds of TAFE Gippsland’s Yallourn Campus in Newborough. The academy also has access to the auditorium in the main TAFE building, which is utilised for holding induction days at the beginning of its programs.

An important part of the academy’s logistical framework is its endeavour to utilise sporting facilities throughout the Gippsland region. For example, the swimming program is undertaken mainly at the Gippsland Regional Aquatic Centre in Traralgon as well as the Warragul Leisure Centre pool, whilst the venues for the netball program are spread wider to Wonthaggi, Sale and Bairnsdale.

“The intention of the academy is to ensure that Gippsland-based athletes are able to receive high performance training locally without always having to go to Melbourne,” Anita notes. “Although the activity for a lot of sports at a higher level is still focused in Melbourne, our aim is to reduce the frequency of that travel by providing accessibility to high performance training and wide-ranging programs and support services here in Gippsland.”

Anita explains that all the academy’s programs have some form of training component and are tailored for athletes who are serious about going further in their sport. “We have around 24 highly qualified coaches working with us at the moment,” she says. “Some of our coaches are locally based, while some come from Melbourne. They are not fully employed by the academy but a lot of them become involved because they love coaching, are dedicated to their sports and united in their desire to help progress young athletes.”

The academy also offers athletes access to a range of localised support services through close collaborative partnerships with expert providers. “We provide strength and conditioning and injury management on all our programs through our partnership with Control High Performance in Traralgon and Warragul along with Remy McLeod in Sale, and we have also just recently partnered with the Bairnsdale Aquatic and Recreational Centre,” Anita says. “Our athletes also gain considerable benefit from access to the services of sports psychologist, Christopher Shen, nutritionist Lauren Nicholls, and the team at Gippsland Physiotherapy Group.”

New athletes are always welcome to participate in the academy’s programs provided they meet the specific entrance criteria for their chosen sport. “As an example, Netball Victoria requires our netball program to be from 12 to under »

15-year-olds,” Anita states. “We give them additional training above what they receive at their clubs, in the hope that they are then selected at the association championships to trial at the talent academy through Netball Victoria.”

The academy’s swimming program has even higher expectations around admission. “Our swimmers need to have already reached national level or be chosen by our coaches,” Anita observes. “The kids who have just come back from National Championships in Brisbane this year will be invited into our swimming program, which commences in June/ July. In the past we’ve had local coaches of the calibre of Brian Ford, Dean Gooch, Paul Myers, Dylan Muir and Gary Cole, and on top of that we’ve also brought Olympic coach

Leigh Nugent into the program, which has been tremendously exciting,” she adds.

In some other sports, including hockey and volleyball, locallybased trials are another way of gaining admission to the academy. “We use all local coaches for our hockey program which is generally designed for kids aged from 12 to 18. We train them up in the hope they then get selected for the Gippsland Bulls and then go on to either country championships or state championships level.” Anita says.

In some sports, the academy does work with a small number of athletes aged over 18. For example, in clay target shooting, a participant is considered a junior up to the age of 21. The academy has also welcomed adult athletes through the Victorian Regional Academies of Sport (VRAS) Para Sport project in partnership with Paralympics Australia. “Going back there was a general rule in the academy that we would only accept athletes over 18 provided they were in school or undertaking an apprenticeship,” Anita comments. “Although the allowances we make to accommodate slightly older athletes still remain it’s more the exception than the rule, the Para Sport project has really helped to open up those opportunities. The current para athletes selected by Paralympics Australia to be given additional services by us are 23 and nearly 40 years of age.”

In recent years, the academy has also broadened the way athletes can access its additional services without fully participating in one of its available sports programs. The Individual Scholarship Holders (ISH) program considers applications from athletes in other sports not covered within its general framework. Applicants who are accepted for a scholarship, become part of the academy and gain access to the comprehensive sports science, strength and conditioning and nutrition components but do not receive training. “At the moment we have scholarship holders in sports such as archery, Brazilian jiujitsu and modern pentathlon. It is a program that we’ve been trying to develop and expand over the past couple of years. We want to help get the athletes stronger connections with their own state sporting bodies and access to more services,” Anita states. “Last year we also partnered with Kurnai College in Morwell and Churchill to introduce an exclusive program for their students. Under this program, we provide the Kurnai student participants with access to our strength and conditioning and sports psychology components.”

The Gippsland Sports Academy is also very active in showcasing local athletic excellence, both inside and outside its own programs. “Our annual Academy awards evening is a wonderful celebration of the athletes and their achievements,” Anita says. “Part of the event is about presenting our major awards, but it also has a graduation component where we have the opportunity to say farewell to those who have aged out of the program or are no longer going forward in their sport.”

This year’s awards were presented at a gala function at the Italian Australian Club in Morwell on May 2nd. Former GSA graduate Emily Beecroft returned as the guest of honour to assist in the awards presentation ceremony and spoke about her time with the academy and the many accomplishments in her swimming career to date, highlighted by a gold medal at last year’s Paralympics in Paris. The evening culminated with the

Honour Roll

Special congratulations to the following overall winners in the Gippsland Sports Academy Annual Awards for 2024

KELLY GODFREY (HOCKEY)

Phil Shelley Award

CAMPBELL SCOTT (TENNIS)

Photos, Doug Pell presentation of four major honours — the Tim Forsyth Award for Excellence, the Darrell White Special Achievement Award, the David Drane Award and the Phill Shelley Award. Former Olympian Tim Forsyth, who previously hailed from Thorpdale, is the Gippsland Sports Academy’s current Patron, whilst Darrell White, David Drane and Phil Shelley have all made an indelible contribution towards the academy’s success.

Darrell has been on the Board since its inception in 1997. He is a former long-serving chairman and continues to be a tireless and passionate contributor to the academy in the role of treasurer. Both David and Phil were instrumental figures in the original development of the academy.

The Gippsland Sports Academy also administers the long-standing monthly Gippstar Awards, which are open to all community members participating in any sport. In August each year, all of the monthly winners in both the junior (under 18) and open age categories are invited to

David Drane Award a presentation where they receive their monthly awards and the overall winners are also announced, along with the Team of the Year, Club of the Year, and other special achievement awards.

“We also have the Gippsland Champion Award, which is for someone who has started their career in Gippsland and gone on to do bigger and better things on the wider sporting stage, and have to be living outside the region. Last year’s winner was Emily Beecroft,” Anita adds.

Many of the athletes and sporting bodies that the Gippsland Sports Academy works with today will no doubt have an eye towards the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane. With a home-grown Games only seven years away, there is no better time for talented youngsters to be developing their potential.

Anita says the academy has historically continued to adjust its range of programs as sports rise or fall in popularity over time. “We

JACK BATESON (CLAY TARGET SHOOTING)

Tim Forsyth Award for Excellence

RUBY SHIEFFELBEIN (HOCKEY)

Darrell White Special Achievement Award have one or two sports on our wish list that we’re looking at and having conversations around, primarily badminton and baseball. There’s definitely a lot of local talent in baseball and that would probably be the next sport I target to get on board,” she reveals.

Local businesses and organisations also have a way to get involved with the academy and make a tangible difference through sponsorship. “Some but not all of our programs currently have sponsors,” Anita notes. “Having a program sponsor reduces the cost to the athletes, so we would welcome any opportunities to explore new partnerships in the community at any time.”

Further information about the Gippsland Sports Academy and its programs can be located online at www.sportsgippsland.org.au or by phoning (03) 5127 0223. You can also keep up with the latest news and information by following the academy on social media on Facebook and Instagram. gl