Unofficial Flyers

Bristol Academy Flyers have just started their HOOPS 4 HEALTHY HEARTS program in the South Gloucestershire and North Bristol areas.

Flyers received a grant from HEART RESEARCH UK to set up the scheme, which aims to teach children at primary school level, how to live a healthy lifestyle, and tackle obesity.

The program introduces the basics of exercise, diet, and nutrition through fun and easy to understand sessions.

They do this through basketball coaching, and classroom-based activities.

The first school to receive this program was Filton Hill Primary, who’s year 5 students were treated to a fun packed training session with Coach Liam Anderson- Brown, and Flyers senior team players, Brody Bishop and Tyrone Treasure.

Bristol Academy Flyers and Filton College basketball academy students have been working hard in the local community spreading the word about a healthy lifestyle to primary school children.

After many weeks of hard work in the class room in many local schools, the youngsters came together for the Hoops 4 Healthy Hearts festival held at the Filton College, WISE Campus.

The festival of basketball sponsored by Heart Research UK and local business’s COSTCO UK, Big Tall Order and DTM gave the youngsters a chance to show off their newly acquired skills in a tournament organised by the Filton College Basketball Academy Students.

12 teams entered the tournament with 150 primary school children in action at the fantastic sports facilities at the WISE Campus. The youngsters were treated to a fantastic day where the teams played in 2 pools of 6 teams to decide who would reach the final and a chance to become festival champions.

Officiated by Filton College Basketball academy students the children thoroughly enjoyed the day with some great basketball being played by the youngsters. With the spectator seating out and a huge number of young players the atmosphere was electric and very noisy throughout the day.

A guest visit from some of the Flyers star players was greeted with a huge response as professional players Brody Bishop and John Grazioli were mobbed and spent a long time talking to the pupils and signing autographs. The pair then were on hand to pass down advice to the teams and also coached a number of games making the basketball experience one that many of the youngsters won’t forget in a hurry.

The pool stages soon finished and the final between Stoke Lodge Primary School and Almondsbury was an exciting end to the day with Stoke Lodge taking the title in a close fought game. Both the winners and runners up received new school bags full of goodies kindly donated by Costco UK as part of their commitment to the important message of education in the local community.

“Today has been a huge success, to see so many youngsters involved in this tournament has been great, and no matter what the results were in each game the teams thoroughly enjoyed their experience. Teachers, Pupils and parents have commended the event and to see the academy students playing such a key role is fantastic, they worked hard on this event and the success is down to them”. Liam Anderson-Browne Basketball Bristol Academy Flyers, Community Development officer quoted.

“We have worked hard organising the tournament and to see how much the kids enjoyed it was just amazing. Everybody from the academy has really enjoyed today and we have been able to see all of our hard work pay off!” Quotes, Richard Loftman, Chairman of the organising committee of Filton College Basketball Academy students.

Young players taking part in the competition got to spend time with Flyers young talent, Rob Loftman and Ty Treasure, (both pictured), as well as John Grazioli and Brody Bishop.

Big Tall Order Bristol Academy Flyers, Heart Research UK and Filton College’s primary school education scheme is making a huge impact on the lives of young people in South Gloucestershire.

Hoops 4 Healthy Hearts has just had its first anniversary and is moving into the second year of the popular and potentially life saving scheme. Hoops 4 Healthy Hearts is a 5 week project delivered to local primary school children and teaches them the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle. The classroom sessions deliver fun and informative lessons mapped into pupil’s key stage 2 science.

One of the key classroom sessions teaches young people the importance of keeping your Heart Healthy with emphasis being on “what they do or don’t do now will affect their futures”. The scheme is delivered by Flyers professional players and captivates the youngsters through the medium of basketball; Basketball offers a different perspective to that of more traditional sports. Basketball is a fast paced action packed game which involves all participants and is a very cheap and cost effective game to get involved in.

“The kids love seeing the players in their school and really take on board the message we deliver, at the Flyers National League games we see lots of the kids from local schools in the crowd, and they have really taken to the sport and want to get involved. This message is so important and will inevitably change lives in the future. The scheme offers more than just information to the pupils alone, as we leave each participant with an informative booklet which we let them keep. This goes home with them and the important messages go back to their households where hopefully the whole family will get involved in choosing a healthier lifestyle.” Quotes Liam Anderson Browne, Head of Community Basketball at the club.

Heart Research UK, one of the countries leading Heart Charities have recognised the work done by the scheme and are so pleased with the project that they now want to fund Hoops 4 Healthy Hearts on a long term basis. The project has now delivered the important messages of a healthy diet, heart and the dangers of smoking to over 5000 local school children and is currently delivering to a new batch of year 5 and 6 pupils in many South Gloucestershire Schools.

“Young people today need to be made aware that the decisions they make in life now will affect their futures and that simple changes to diet and implementing weekly exercise will enable them to stay healthy throughout their lives and avoid coronary heart disease and obesity which are taking over as the biggest killers in the UK. The Hoops 4 Healthy Hearts project has been a huge success since its conception in January 2008 and on its first anniversary the results are already being seen. Our Saturday morning development centre has grown by 30% in the time the scheme has been running with more young people wanting to get involved with playing basketball at the club. This is so evident that we have now had to branch out and set up more clubs outside of Filton College. Patchway Flyers joined the growing number last week to give young people in the area the opportunity to join a Basketball club. We have other clubs lined up in other areas which we will slowly introduce for the growing number of young people taking up the sport. This growth is testament to the success of the scheme and is the reason why with support we will look to give more opportunities to young people in other areas in the future” Comments Danny James, Director of Basketball.

  PATCHWAY

The Big Tall Order Bristol Academy Flyers Basketball Club has branched out and with help from Patchway Community Schools, School Sports Coordinator Rachel Nightingale has created the Patchway Flyers.

With Basketball booming in South Gloucestershire and the Flyers Saturday morning development Centre growing rapidly the club has set up one of a number of hub clubs to feed the growing demand for basketball. Flyers Community scheme “Hoops 4 Healthy Hearts” has been a key factor in the sports meteoric rise in the local community. The project delivers the message of a healthy lifestyle to primary school children ,through the medium of Basketball, using the clubs professional players as role models “Hoops 4 Healthy Hearts”  generates  the interest in the class room it has been a catalyst to young people entering the sport at grass roots level. The scheme now celebrating it’s first birthday has delivered basketball to over 5,000 young people and has generated a huge amount of interest across the region.

Patchway Flyers began their training sessions with coaches Brody Bishop, Flyers Canadian import and Jake Nash-Wilson one of Flyers aspiring academy players on Wednesday at Patchway Community College. The sessions were a huge success with 25 youngsters in each of the two age group sessions.

“This is a really important move for us as a club, our local community has so much to offer and we want to make full use of the rise in numbers wanting to play Basketball. We pride ourselves on the “Hoops 4 Healthy Hearts” scheme and the talent that this area has produced recently. We have seen International players develop through the club and currently have a lot of players representing the South West at various age groups within the development structure. Having clubs such as Patchway will only aid the development of the sport in the area, providing more opportunities for youngsters to get involved on a regular basis. This is real testament to the development work being carried out in the partnership area” Quotes Danny James, Director of Basketball.

The Flyers Basketball partnership includes Filton College, Heart Research UK, South Gloucestershire County Council, Bristol City Council, Sports Match and is also supported by local businesses Big Tall Order, DTM LTD, Initially Yours and Costco Wholesale. The support of these agencies and businesses has enabled Flyers to develop one of the regions top development programmes for basketball, in a city where the sport is booming.

Patchway Flyers will now join 9 other local teams in the Flyers and WEBBA development tournaments held once per month at the Filton College WISE campus giving all of the youngsters the chance to play in competitive games in the regions top basketball centre.

Who knows the next Basketball superstar may come from Patchway!!!

For more information on how to get involved in playing basketball please contact Danny James. 07747487914 Email: danny.james@filton.ac.uk