Kicking Goals

The West Coast Eagles’ Kicking Goals program, run in conjunction with Swan Districts Football Club and BHP Billiton, is one of Australia’s largest regional based 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. West Coast Eagles players and staff make 10 visits to the Pilbara every year as part of the Kicking Goals program, where they conduct motivational talks and football clinics with students.

Every year, the Kicking Goals students are also invited to participate in a curtain-raiser football match before a West Coast Eagles home match. The most sought after prize, however is the Melbourne incentive trip, where three lucky Kicking Goals students are taken to watch some of the best AFL matches of the season live at the MCG and Docklands.

Recognition

In 2011, the Kicking Goals program received a SHAPED award from the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. Presented by ACHPER’s WA branch, the SHAPED Awards recognise excellence and innovation in health and physical education programs in WA schools and communities, and are supported by the Department of Sport and Recreation, the Department of Education, the Catholic Education Office and the Association of Independent Schools of WA. At the annual SHAPED Awards Gala Dinner held at Government House in 2011, the Kicking Goals program at Newman Senior High School was one of the main secondary school program winners.

Results

The Kicking Goals program sees some fantastic results, including:

•a 35% decrease in criminal activity in Port Hedland;
•an improvement in numeracy and literacy among participating Indigenous students in Hedland and Newman;
•a marked reduction in anti-social behaviour in both participating schools;
•program participants donate more than 200 hours of personal time to community volunteering;
•school truancy levels dropping to their lowest in years.