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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-08 Daily Xml
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SCHOOLS, PHYSICAL FITNESS

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:27): I rise today to talk about physical fitness amongst our school students and, in particular, one program that has been very successful in the Willunga region for the past five years. Anyone driving past Willunga High School on a Friday afternoon in term 1 or 4, will see up to 300 students from schools in the area out there playing tag rugby league.

It is a very popular outing for students in the area. It started out, as I said, five years ago with just 20 students going for a game after school, and in that time it has grown to more than 300 students and the range of schools has gone across to Seaford and up into your electorate as well, Madam Deputy Speaker, with the children from Morphett Vale also taking part in this competition. There are 28 teams, spread across three divisions; years 8 and 9 are the top division and there are two levels of primary school below that. We see students from Tatachilla, Aldinga and Seaford schools and, of course, from Willunga Primary School, Willunga High School and McLaren Vale.

I would particularly like to pay tribute to one particular gentleman, Paul Crate, who is the physical education teacher at Willunga Primary School. It was his idea to get this off the ground a few years ago, and I think it has grown beyond even Mr Crate's expectations. It is a wonderful success in terms of getting not only all these children out there but their parents as well. They have a barbecue and it is a very social as well as sporting occasion in the local region.

The students are charged $20 for a season, and so far they have not received any government money: they have not asked for any government money and have not received any, although I would like to change that. The people concerned have done such a good job of getting kids out there participating in sport; in these days of high levels of childhood obesity, I think it is very important that we have active young members in our community, and those playing tag rugby league are certainly doing that.

It is not just those who are good at sport who are doing well at tag rugby league either, because I find you do not have to be the fastest runner or the most nimble person in the team to actually do well at this sport. It is a sport that suits a range of levels of physical fitness and levels of ability. The other advantage is that it is not just for those who are playing the game. So far, 30 high school students have been trained to be referees. I think that, if you talk to any administrator in any sport, one of the really tough things is to get kids and even older people involved in refereeing or umpiring, and so it is admirable that, over the past five years, 30 students from Willunga High School have trained to be referees.

They also get paid for going out there, which I think is another good thing. This all comes out of that $20 subscription. More than 50 people—parents and again high school students—have been trained as coaches over the past five years, as well. It is very encouraging, particularly for the high schools students, in that it teaches them some very valuable skills. There is a couple of other local legends, if you like, including Chum Reed, who has been involved with the Willunga footy club, a very successful football club. It has won the local flag for the past four years in a row. Chum has probably dedicated 40 to 50 years of his life as a trainer for the Willunga Football Club. He is in charge of first aid and, if any of the kids suffer an injury or a strain, he is there.

I really want to thank Chum, and other people in the local community, who give up their Friday afternoons not only to help out the current crop of students who are playing the game but also to ensure that this competition grows year on year. Willunga Primary School is the current champion in the girls' rugby tag and also the boys' rugby tag. Congratulations to both those teams. They have been the state champions for the past two seasons in a row. Two years ago, the Premier met with the team at the Adelaide Oval when they received their shield for the first time.

Marty Prichard, who has been very involved in the coaching, has also done a great job, as has Dave Cohen, who has been instrumental in setting up these competitions around the state. I think that, considering the various skills you need to play rugby tag, it sort of mixes Aussie rules, soccer, rugby league and rugby union all into one sort of homogenised game.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member's time has expired. The member for Goyder.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Hear, hear! A good member.

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