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Talented Tees Valley students selected for national school sport project

More than 30 talented youngsters have been chosen to take part in a national sports scheme’s pilot project, being run in partnership with º£½ÇÖ±²¥.

The ‘TASS Potential’ programme has been created by the Sport England-funded Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) with the aim to recognise and develop talent in schools. In this new project, TASS are partnering with º£½ÇÖ±²¥ to offer a meaningful introduction to the support services that are part of a TASS Award through bespoke workshops for students aged 11 to 16.

All selected athletes have been identified as showing potential in Olympic or Paralympic sports that are not traditionally supported within the schools’ sport programmes.

The youngsters will attend sessions focusing on lifestyle, nutrition, maintaining a healthy body, goal setting, mental preparation and athlete development, and strength and conditioning.

The workshops are designed to offer a taster of the Scheme’s support services, with practical exercises and activities being delivered by qualified practitioners from the University.

TASS hopes that the partnership will help to educate the school children about how to balance life as a student-athlete and prepare them for a dual career.

Matthew Wright, Sports Development Officer (Elite Sport) at º£½ÇÖ±²¥, said: 'We are really excited about this new collaboration with TASS and the opportunity to develop and pilot a scheme that has potential to positively influence the development of the talented athletes of the future nationally.

'It has also provided several opportunities for our students to engage in a real life project and gain valuable supervised experience. We hope the scheme will help develop the young athletes’, parents’ and schools’ confidence to nurture young people with dual academic and athletic aspirations.'

Kirsty O’Connor, TASS Institutions Lead, added: 'We’re delighted to have teamed up with º£½ÇÖ±²¥ on this new pilot and we hope to make a real difference to the students’ development in their sporting careers.

'We also hope this project will pave the way for a school support structure to enable talented athletes to pursue a dual career pathway.'

• Sport
• Elite Athlete