Young people aged 12 to 18 will be able to take advantage of the first after-school baseball program in Trois-Rivières. Interested parties from Les Pionniers secondary school and St. Joseph Seminary will train at the premises of Les Aigles Academy.
Interest in sport is growing in the city, underlined the president of the Aigles Academy, Pascal Boislard.
This new project will allow many young people to improve their skills or discover the sport.
The management of the two schools jumped into the project with both feet. For the Séminaire St-Joseph, it is among other things the proximity of the premises that interested the director, Dany Dallaire.
“The students finish their school day and they can come here on foot afterwards. The program, the facilities, is something that really connects to where we want to go with our students. It’s the overall development of the child and the overall development of the athlete,” said Mr. Dallaire.
For his part, the assistant principal of Les Pionniers school was charmed by the quality of the facilities and the community component. “We are going to prepare the next generation of coaches. They will be forced to get involved in the academy, and that attracted us a lot.
In addition to baseball, the program has three components. The academy’s professionals focus on healthy lifestyles, the development of autonomy and the empowerment of athletes.
One of the particularities is that teenagers can register for the whole year, or even choose one of the three four-month training periods offered. Each provides for the development of different skills during the year.
“We try to adapt the athlete to his annual environment. Autumn will serve as the off-season. Physical training is a bit more intense. The baseball volume adjusts accordingly. The more that we arrive towards summer, the more that baseball is present, the less that training is and after that, in the summer, we are in maintenance, ”explained the kinesiologist and program manager, Jean-Philippe Martin.
L’Entrepôt du Baseball, LANEC Web Solutions and Le Temps d’une Pinte are also behind the project. Businesses have a mandate to integrate young people into the labor market. The work-sport-study balance should be facilitated for adolescents who will be supervised by their employer.
“We know that these young people already have acquired qualities such as teamwork, which is super important in business, motivation, achieving goals,” listed the sales director of the Le Temps d’une Pinte microbrewery. , Sebastien Bourassa.
“We want it to be really complementary, to be like an environment in itself,” added Mr. Martin.
The young athletes will also be accompanied by various stakeholders throughout their training. Sports psychologists, nutritionists, doctors and even police officers will be put to work.
“We also want to bring other knowledge to our young people like other trades that come out of the field of physical activity, but which will bring super important knowledge to our young people”, supported the sports therapist and responsible for the program, Karl Gosselin.
Thanks to a crowdfunding campaign, the Académie les Aigles raised $112,520 so that young people can practice their sport while pursuing their studies.
The first four-month period begins on March 31. The following are scheduled for the end of July and November 2022.
Reference-www.tvanouvelles.ca