TASP

The Talented Athlete Support Program (TASP) operates to assist students who are on a pathway to becoming professional sportsmen, Olympians or student-athletes at international universities and colleges. These students have unique complexities and pressures created by the competing interests of the College and their specific sports’ peak body.

TASP is designed to assist our elite sporting students to navigate this path. It helps our elite sporting students to:

• Manage their time
• Educates them on sports specific topics
• Monitors their load, and physical and mental well-being
• Ensures they achieve a balanced result from their time at Newington

The objective of the program is to help each one of our talented young sportsmen in working towards achieving their full potential, not only in sport, in academic and co-curricular activities, but also well as in their social life.

TASP boys are mentored by a full-time member of staff with extensive experience in pastoral care within performance sport.

The program centres on:

• Goal setting
• Time management
• school-life balance
• Leadership
• Mental well-being and resilience
• Physical health including pre-hab and re-hab
• Strength and conditioning
• Nutrition, hydration, rest and sleep.

The outcome is to have young men with the skills to develop a growth mindset, so they are positive, have self-belief, are aware of immediate and present issues and can problem-solve and cope with adversity.

Arriving at Newington in 2010, Sudanese refugee Chiir Maker (ON 2014) had a stellar career in school boy basketball over his five years at the College. Chiir was named the Most Valuable Player at the National Schoolboy Championships in 2012 and 2013. He is a three-time All-Australian National Schoolboy honouree, three-time NSW All-Schools State Team recipient, and was named in both the AAGPS Conference All-Star Team and The NSW Independent Schools Team each of the last three years. He was recognised as the MVP of the NSW Waratah League in 2014 after earning all-league honours in 2013.

At Newington, Chirr benefited from the TASP program and is now set to begin an extraordinary career having signed with Portland Pilots for the 2015 American College season.