Brett O'Riley: New Zealand Performance Academy Board Member discusses principals of New Zealand's first sports school

New Zealand's first sports school will open next year, in a partnership with Wellington Phoenix.

The New Zealand Performance Academy in Upper Hutt will operate as a charter school for serious aspiring sportspeople.

The academy will initially offer elite football training alongside the Wellington Phoenix Academy, as well as rugby training.

Other sports will be added over time.

The school will teach a nationally recognised curriculum along with key skills such as leadership, mental health and nutrition.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The latest charter school's got to focus on high performance sports.

(00:02):
The New Zealand Performance Academy set away over in early
next year. It will offer elite rugby and football training
alongside your regular schooling. Bretto Riley's on the board of
this particular establishment and as back, well there's Brett morning
morning mate. This seems for those of us who were
into sport at school, this seems like a dream come true.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah. Look, it's certainly a great model and I think
it's going to offer a really really exciting education opportunities
and really exciting high performance sport opportunities for young women
and men. And I think that's something we've been working
on for quite a while and it's really nice to
see it come to fruition.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
How does it work? Do you pick winners? I mean,
are the best of the best? Are you cherry picking?
In other words?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
No, I mean our funding through the charter school program
really establishes us as a school that takes will come it.
So anybody who is interested in going to the New
Zealand Performance Academy al Terro can enroll and they can
participate in the school alongside people who are part of

(01:06):
the Willington Phoenix Academy. They can participate in sport activity themselves.
But they can also just have a and I don't
know what normal is anymore, but they can have a
secondary school education. And we're as focused on an academic
achievement as we are on sporting achievement, and hopefully we

(01:29):
can make both of those things happen. So even if
you don't have an aspiration to be a professional athlete,
if you're interested in sport and you're thinking in a
bit you enjoy going to school alongside people who do
have an aspiration to be a professional athlete, you can
do that.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Because we interview the people behind the online charter school
the other day and they said, look, the rules are
there is no cherry picking. And I understand that, but
in your case, is that a miss? I mean, surely,
if you've got a facility, you want to plug in
the best athletes so that they can excel to a
point where they will live to their fullest potential. I mean,
isn't that what the it's all about?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Look, I think it will naturally attract people who want
to be you know, who want a career in sport.
But you know, both as directly as participants, but potentially
also in related careers like physio and administration. And you're right.
We located at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and

(02:22):
Sport and tread them the old CIT as it was
many years ago, and that is one of the best
high performance sports facilities in New Zealand, if not the
world actually. But the technology and the investment I've made
in the infrastructure is incredible. But you know, we expect
we'll get a lot of local young people, initially years

(02:43):
eleven to thirteen from the Hut Valley catchment. But we've
had the phone has been literally running hot since the
announcement yesterday, and so we're aiming for one hundred in
our first year on the role. And I don't think
based on yesterday's announcement and the sea but we're going
to have any problem for achieving that.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, I wish you the best. Well it it's probably
I'm a big fan of charter schools, but this one
seems to be the best of the best. Breda Riley,
who's the New Zealand Performance Academy board member David Seymour,
pushing thirty was pretty good, don't you think so? Sam
said in here going, No, I do eighty five. But
Sam's a bit like that, and he's on steroids. But David,
if you didn't see him on the news yesterdays, lying

(03:23):
down is pushing fifteen aside plus the weight to the bar.
He looked if you looked at it closely, he was
he was shaking. He wasn't too red in the face,
but he had a business. Shit. We were impressed. My wife,
who's very much into weights these days, was very impressed.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
The people who say plus the way to the bar,
are they like the people who say and a half
when they give their high No.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
The weight of a bar. You ever pushed a bar, Glenn,
I got a couple of bars at home there. I
reckon they're five cag's by themselves. I reckon he's pushing.
He was pushing thirty ten.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Depends on it depends on the bar. I'm saying percentage wise,
you know, it becomes less significant the more you go up,
doesn't it. Well as the maths, I'm just saying that
people who are six foot five never say I'm six
foot five and a half, whereas people like me, who
is five foot eight and a half, I dictly hang
on to that.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Half Okay, I got you at five foot three or four,
or maybe just stoop that weight.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
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