Each term we hold an information morning for families who are considering joining the IFS/ITS community and I am often asked the question, why did you start the college?, or, what was the motivation behind it? I know I have shared this with many families, however it is so easy to forget what drove us to make the decisions we have as we get stuck in the rut of our everyday lives and forget how we arrived at this point in time.
Almost four years ago I was faced with a very tough dilemma. My oldest boy, who is now just 13, had been playing club football for a few years and thoroughly enjoyed college. I, like many parents, wanted the best for my son and he showed a real passion for football. My partner and I had him enrolled in every program that we could and before we knew it I was out at least 3-4 nights a week putting my son’s needs first. Getting him to club training, doing a football clinic with Mariners and whatever other program we could access that might give him an extra advantage. After living this crazy life for almost a year I met a number of other families doing the same thing (and sometimes even more extreme) and I realised that this was nuts. I had two other little boys at home and my partner and I knew that this lifestyle was not sustainable. Beyond this I was really starting to question the effectiveness of the training that he was doing.
About the same time I started researching what other countries around the world do with youth development and I stumbled across some programs in Europe that linked the player’s football club and college which I thought was a novel idea. Imagine if my son (or daughter) could train during the college day – the amount of time it would give my family back. No longer would we need to be out late at night, eating take-away far too often and moreover, my own child could actually get a good night’s sleep.
At that time I was teaching at another local independent college and I thought I might have been able to start a football program there. After a few conversations with some board members I realised it was going to be too hard culturally to shift that college and I embarked on the journey that started our college.
The reason I share this story is that over this last weekend our family celebrated my partner’s 40th birthday. We had a very relaxing weekend away. My little boys all enjoyed themselves immensely, playing tennis, table tennis and pool, going swimming and feeding kangaroos while enjoying the amazing views of the Hunter Valley. Those moments made me reflect on the motivations behind my starting the college! Being able to spend time together as a family and enjoy our children being children! It is about them and their future. That is what inspired me and it does each day.
I look forward to the last few weeks of the term as we celebrate the year that was and look ahead to the new additions to the college with Kindergarten starting in 2016 and a number of new students and staff also starting on their journey with us! There is so much more to look forward to…
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