Young cricketers across the New England will now have a new pathway to elite training with the launch of the Tamworth Cricket Academy (TCA).
Founder, Trent Weir, says the new program aims to meet the growing demand for structured, high-performance player development in regional NSW.
“It’s a high-performance cricket academy that we brought to Tamworth to provide a young athlete with a high-performance coaching in a high-performance environment for their player growth and development which has been lacking in Tamworth in recent years,” said Trent.
The New England has proven it can breed the best, such as Bendemeer bowler Josh Hazlewood- currently representing Australia on the pitch, and with interest on the up in young athletes, the timing is perfect to launch a new pathway.
“Participation is really strong at the community level and getting people into the game.” said Trent.
“There’s really good resources for people at the top-level with Cricket New South Wales and Central North Academy but we’re filling a gap in terms of the development in between those two levels,”
“Getting people from participating in junior cricket into those high-performance squad, state squads, regional squads, and providing that consistent support and development of those players.”
The program takes its commitment to the community further, providing a scholarship opportunity for one athlete per term, who might otherwise miss out due to financial constraints.
“I understand that financially it can be a bit hard and that’s why I’ve tried to make it as reasonable as possible for the for the athletes and the parents.”
“We want to support the region, and we want to give those less fortunate the opportunity to come along to our academy, free of charge, and that’s all about trying to identify talent and push that talent into the next level.”
TCA is hosting their official launch event this Sunday, June 22, at 3pm at Intersport Tamworth, which will be followed by the first training session on Monday, June 23.
“This is a great opportunity for the coaches and the athletes to come together, and kick start the academy with discussions around high-performance, our values in the academy and to understand how player progress tracking will work, and what will be expected of the players,” said Trent.
“It will also be a good opportunity for us to start identifying key areas of element and key areas to improve and right from the first session will be getting into our skills drills and technique work.”
“Intersport have been great supporters of what we’re doing and helping us out with the venue for our launch and also providing us some equipment for the academy.”
TCA is currently taking nominations for their Term Three 10-week course, the first if many to come for the New England. The initial intake will be capped at 40 athletes.
Interested? Speak with Trent and the team today.
“It’s something that Tamworth hasn’t seen in recent years,” said Trent.
“The academy is about player growth and development both on and off the field. Its about creating better cricketers but it’s also about creating better people, and better kids,”
For more information visit the TCA website.
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