YOUNG up-and-coming athletes are set for a boost with Monivae College Sport Academy (MCSA) set for a big expansion in 2023.

The academy launched this year and plans are already in place to expand the program to other sports, along with including more age groups, growing from two sports to five.

Academy co-ordinator, Clinton Thomas said the success of the program so far meant the college had confidence to expand in the second year.

“The sports academy started with cricket and basketball and the intent was to develop a program that does create really good opportunities for our students to develop their overall athletic potential,” he said.

“We are trying to develop the model that allows them to pursue their sporting interests and not necessarily have to sit in the car for two hours just to get to training.

“We have had a successful launch in 2022 and from that end it has naturally led to the expansion of other key sports which are very popular in the region including football, netball and swimming.”

The program will also encompass the full age range from Year 7 to Year 10, giving participants access to more information and coaching.

“We started with Year 9, recognising it was a key stage in which we wanted to get the program correct and now we are expanding it out to the Year 7s, Year 8s, Year 9s and the current Year 9s will roll over into Year 10,” Thomas said.

“The most important part for us is making sure that we get high performance coaches involved in the program.

“So we are very excited and while we are not going to be announcing it yet, we have got a former AFL coach who will be running the football, a former Vixen who will be running the netball and national level coaches overseeing the performance of our swimming.

“We have (already) got an NBL1 coach running the basketball and a former semi-professional cricket player running the cricket side of things.”

With a big expansion now locked in for next year, the program will then remain steady with no further plans to include any other sports at this stage.

Registrations for next year’s program are already open until June, before the selection process takes place in July.

“On July 7 and 8, we will be doing our selection trials and we will be getting Federation University to come and do their fitness testing,” Thomas said.

Current Grade 6 and Year 7 students will be tested on the first day with Year 8 and Year 9 on day two.