West Coast Eagles superstar Nic Naitanui paid a visit to participants of Hedland Senior High School’s Kicking Goals program recently.

Photo gallery: The best pics from Naitanui's visit

The 2012 All Australian ruckman taught children the value of goal setting, a healthy diet, hydration, sleep and, of course, education.

He also shared the intriguing story of his formative football journey, which started as a nine-year-old at Midvale Junior Football Club, included a development phase at Swan Districts Football Club and culminated in his drafting to West Coast in 2008.

Naitanui also conducted several football clinics, including a Strength to Succeed skills session for the school’s most promising talents.

“We spoke to the children in the classrooms about footy, off-field topics and my time at school,” Naitanui said.

“We took a few skills sessions out on the oval and in the gym as well. We’re using football as a vehicle to encourage children to stay in school and become the best people they can be.”

Naitanui said it was rewarding to see how far the Kicking Goals program had come since he first got involved as a 17-year-old junior footballer.

“It’s grown in numbers and the netball side of the program has grown as well,” he said.

“Kids are getting more opportunities now and we are starting to see some of them filter through some of the programs in metropolitan WA.”

The Kicking Goals program, run in conjunction with Swan Districts Football Club and BHP Billiton, is one of Australia’s largest regional AFL mentoring programs, combining sport-based initiatives to help high school students in the Pilbara towns of Port Hedland and Newman achieve better educational and employment outcomes.

The program is a curriculum-based initiative that utilises a reward and incentive system, where students are required to maintain certain key performance indicators to stay in the program and be eligible for various incentives, including visits by West Coast Eagles players.