4 June 2014
Spirit Cup, Devonport Football Club's free primary school football program, is back. The program is proudly sponsored by Spirit of Tasmania.
It will officially launch on 4 June 2014 at 3.45pm, at Devonport Oval, with a special appearance from former Devonport Football Club player Ben Brown, who was drafted to North Melbourne last year.
Twelve participating primary schools from the Mersey-Leven region are invited to the launch and a free one-day footy clinic to hone their skills with an AFL player.
Ben, a ruckman/tall forward, is a former Tasmanian under-18 representative with terrific aerobic capacity and contested-marking ability who “competes ferociously at ground level.”
“It’s great to get the opportunity to come back to my home state and talk to young players about football,” he said.
“I started playing for the Devonport Football Club while still at St.Brendan's College so the club is very important to me.”
Ben played at the Devonport Junior Saints from 2000-2004 and then at Devonport Football Club in 2009 and 2010.
On Wednesday 4 June, Ben will be hosting the football clinic at the Devonport Oval and will also be participating in a question and answer session with Spirit of Tasmania’s Operations Manager (and former Devonport Football player) Paul Davis.
Spirit Cup, will officially commence on 31 July 2014.
The program is a primary school football program for boys and girls in grades four, five and six from local schools in the Mersey-Leven area.
It’s fun - there are no scores kept, no results and no finals and it is free to play. The program was developed to increase participation in AFL and sport in general.
All players will be presented with a Spirit Cup medallion on presentation day.
Games are played every Thursday over an eight week roster at Byard Park, (opposite Devonport Oval) from 3.45pm - 5.00pm.
“This is our fourth year of the program (second year of Spirit Cup) and numbers are growing ever year, it’s an opportunity for parents to allow their children to enjoy meeting an AFL football player for free, improve their skills and even more importantly stay active and healthy, the youngsters just love it,” Devonport Football Club President Shane Yates said.
“The club is very fortunate to have the wonderful support of Spirit of Tasmania – together we share a vision for the future of the youth of our region and we look forward to another great year of Spirit Cup.”
-ends-
Contact: Soniya Fernandez
Communications Manager
saf@spiritoftasmania.com.au
