Applications for TECT sport scholarships set to open

Some of the 2017 TECT Scholarship winners training at the University of Waikato Adams Centre for High Performance. Photo / Supplied

Developing local athletes have the chance to win a TECT scholarship involving the use of facilities and staff expertise at the University of Waikato Adams Centre for High Performance.

Applications open tomorrowfor the third round of the TECT High Performance Team Scholarship Programme, which spans six months and introduced last year.

Successful applicants will receive a six-month subsidised membership of the Adams Centre starting in mid-March. While the scholarship is predominantly for teams, individual athletes may also apply.

The scholarship is open to teams (or individuals) representing Tauranga or the Bay of Plenty, with the potential to achieve a top-five placing at a national level competition.

Athletes must reside in Tauranga or the Western Bay of Plenty and be 15 years or over. TECT will contribute 50 per cent of the membership cost, and the applying athletes or their regional sporting organisation will need to fund the remainder.

Adams Centre manager Justine Brennan says the package includes strength and conditioning training, sports-specific speed and agility training and fitness testing, invitations to high performance seminars, and initial consultation and discounted treatments with the centre's in-house health and wellbeing specialist services. Athletes will also have access to the centre's recovery pools, athletes lounge, and kitchen.

A sport-specific strength and conditioning programme will be developed for each athlete and will include three sessions per week with a strength and conditioning coach. It will be headed by Dr Daniel McMaster who has worked with various top teams including the All Blacks.

The speed and agility training will be taken by the centre's speed expert Kerry Hill, who has been head coach at several Olympics, world champs and Commonwealth Games over the last 20 years.

Sport-specific testing will be undertaken throughout the programme to monitor progress and ensure results. The high-performance seminars will cover topics such as physiology, strength conditioning, recovery, sports psychology, nutrition, injury prevention, and specific requirements of female athletes. The health and wellbeing specialist services will involve physiotherapy, massage and podiatry.

Brennan says the TECT scholarship is an integral component of transforming Tauranga into a centre of excellence for high performance. With the help of TECT, the Adams Centre is making high-performance support services available to athletes at a regional level.

"By doing this we hope to see the competitiveness of our regional athletes rise significantly on the national stage. This, is turn, will improve the prospects for our athletes keen to be chosen to represent NZ on the international stage," Brennan said.

Teams benefiting from the TECT scholarship in 2017 included Greerton Gold swim squad and BOP senior men's cricket team.

BOP Cricket Association development manager Tai Bridgman-Raison said the scholarship had much to offer his squad.

"Being able to offer our elite athletes the opportunity to participate in this programme gives us a competitive edge over other areas and adds significant value to our high-performance programmes. The feedback from the athletes, and their parents, has been excellent," he said.

To apply email hpstc.admin@bayvenues.co.nz or go to uowadamshpc.co.nz. Applications close on February 23.