Republic Polytechnic partners three NSAs to develop elite youth athletes

Contributed by Benjamin Chow

Republic Polytechnic, Saturday, January 10, 2009 – Republic Polytechnic (RP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) this morning with the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), Singapore Floorball Association (SFA), and Singapore Rugby Union (SRU).

The partnership will focus on three areas: the promotion of floorball, women's football and women's rugby to youths; sports education and certification; and the sharing of expertise, equipment and facilities.

This elite athlete development programme for youths includes performance testing, strength and conditioning, nutrition workshops and training.

Said Fazilah A. Latiff, the sports development manager at Republic Polytechnic who is also a former national women's football player: “We set up the women's football team in Republic Polytechnic in 2007 with 6 members and within a year, it has risen to 30 members, a five-fold increase.

“RP feels that this is a good reflection of the rising numbers of women's participation in this sport in Singapore, based on my observation.

“For floorball, we achieved in the same period a doubling of participants in both the men's and women's team.”

With this partnership, RP can tap on the expertise of the NSAs who have their own High Performance programme to give elite youth athletes a chance to raise their performance to a higher level at the tertiary level.

The significance of this MOU is its unique potential to nurture sports excellence among youths with a well-rounded programme supported by specialists in the respective sports.

As the only polytechnic that offers sports health diploma courses, the NSAs will recommend top youth athletes to pursue further education at RP through this partnership.

Key programmes includes free-to-play introductory courses for RP students to learn and play these sports, and secondary schools will be invited to attend such clinics, which will be conducted by the NSA.

These programmes will be conducted during the academic term-break in March.

The partnership also focuses on three areas, specifically rugby and football for women, while floorball is targeted at both sexes. RP has identified these niche sports to promote at a tertiary level, and to raise awareness for youth to lead a healthy lifestyle.

More than 1,000 Sembawang GRC residents and youths together with Guest-of-honour Minister for Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan and witnessed the signing of the partnership with FAS, SFA, SRU and RP at its Open House today after a community brisk walk in the morning.