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Information regarding the Airwaves Plymouth Raiders "Hoops 4 Health" will be posted here soon.

In the meantime, please feel free to contact the Raiders office if you would like further information.

News article relating to Hoops 4 Health is shown below.

Raiders announce "Hoops 4 Health"
Monday, January 26, 2009

Airwaves Plymouth Raiders have announced one of the biggest ever developments in basketball in the South West. Hoops 4 Health, a national programme involves BBL players in a healthy living promotional programme with primary schools. Year 5 and 6 pupils participate in the scheme and are also encouraged to continue playing basketball in sustainable clubs set up through the scheme. The programme is a key driver in developing participation and exit routes into local basketball clubs for 10 and 11 year olds.

The programme is made up a number of elements. The initial stage of the programme tackles health and child security issues in an entertaining and interactive manner, working with basketball players and coaches from the Raiders basketball club.

These specifically raise the issues of Healthy Eating, Smoking Cessation Fitness and Child Safety. The Roadshows are followed by dedicated basketball coaching which then results in regional tournaments between participating schools with finals played at a Raiders’ home game.

The winners from the Plymouth area will progress to the Hoops 4 Health Tournament Final against winners from the other areas of the country. The final will be played in front of 5000 people at the NIA in Birmingham in May, at the same time as the BBL Playoff Finals are contested. In addition to the health aspects, children going through the programme learn of the importance of team play and working with their peers. Local clubs are then established around the city, and will eventually take part in a newly created central venue league.

The programme aims to use sport to help create an active mind and body. The team element of the programme helps instil discipline in the participants and the desire to win and be successful is a clear outcome for the students. It will also cover the important topic of children’s safety online, something that has featured prominently in the news in recent months.

Plymouth City Council Leader Vivien Pengelly said: "Hoops 4 Health isn’t just about getting more children fit and active, it is about promoting teamwork and teaching young people how to stay safe and healthy into their adult lives. We are really pleased to be supporting the Raiders in delivering this programme in Plymouth schools and hope it will be a big success across the country."

The schools involved in the initial delivery stage are grouped as follows:

Children who enjoy the sport of Basketball are encouraged to continue playing the sport after they complete the programme. This is achieved by using the Schools Sports Partnership Programme that links sport in primary schools to their main secondary school.

The clubs that will be established around the city will be coached by Raiders community coaches, and they’ll also carry the Raiders branding – Tamarside Raiders, Ridgeway Raiders, Eggbuckland Raiders and Sir John Hunt Raiders.

The clubs will start out as Under 12s – for both boys and girls – and in subsequent years, this will expand to include, U14 U16 and U18 clubs for those who want to continue playing the sport. These clubs will be based around the secondary schools in the relevant areas. A central venue league is then created.

From this structure the children showing most potential are encouraged to pursue their interest in the club’s national league team structure which links to England Basketball and through to the Great Britain structure for Elite Players.

“This is a really exciting announcement for the area,” said Raiders Chief Executive, Dave Briggs. “We’ve been working on getting this scheme off the ground for over a year, and we’ve finally got there. We would never have been in this position though without the help and the funding from Plymouth City Council, The Police and the Local Strategic Partnership. They have been tremendous in supporting this initiative, and we’re certain that it’s going to be a phenomenal success.

There’s been a lot of negative publicity recently regarding children’s health and obesity, and part of the reason we’re delivering this initiative is to help combat these problems while the children are still young. In the first year, we’re delivering to half of primary schools in Plymouth and next year, we hope to add the second half.

We’re also in discussions about rolling the programme out across Devon and Cornwall, so children in other areas can benefit from the same support and opportunities. We’re a club that’s proud to be at the heart of our community, and we see it as our responsibility to ensure that the children across Devon and Cornwall are given the best opportunities to play basketball and participate in schemes like this.”

Carol Henwood, the Council's Principal Adviser for Neighbourhood and Informal Learning, has been working closely with colleagues and other partners to fund this project. “This is such an exciting project which meets so many aims for the young people of our city," she said. "We are really excited to be a part this from the start and hope that the programme will go from strength to strength.”

Hoops 4 Health was conceived 8 years ago by Paul Blake of the Newcastle Eagles. They have now developed the initiative to the stage where they are delivering the programme to more than 120 primary schools and employ over 20 community coaches.

Paul Blake, Chairman of the BBL and the Newcastle Eagles and designer of the programme said “This is a great step forward to have the Plymouth Raiders delivering the Hoops 4 Health Programme. With the Raiders and other BBL Clubs we will reach well over 1000 primary schools across the UK this season with over 100,000, 10 and 11 year olds getting access to the programme. Our aim is to continue to extend this initiative and get it adopted by other delivery and sponsorship partners.”

The scheme is set to kick off on Monday 19th January and culminate with the tournament winners meeting at a BBL game towards the end of the season to decide who will progress to the Tournament of Champions in Birmingham.