A new sporting landscape

Gavin Staindl and Steve Dillon from DS Sports. Picture: SUPPLIED

By Russell Bennett

Just over a year ago, two of the most recognisable figures in the local sporting community identified a gap that existed in encouraging youngsters from all walks of life to get involved in sport and stay physically active.

Steve Dillon and Gavin Staindl now head up ‘DS Sports’ – an initiative that runs school and holiday sports-themed programs and initiatives for those aged anywhere from five to 13-years-of-age.

The concept was the brainchild of Dillon, a school teacher known mainly for his cricketing involvement in local sporting circles. Staindl – who’s been heavily involved in the action-packed sport of floorball for many years – later came on board for his business acumen.

“I always saw this as a niche to fill in the market,” Dillon explained.

“There are your sporting clubs, but I’m talking about for kids who don’t particularly want to play in a recognised team sport.

“You’ve got your before and after school care programs, but you’ve got nothing in between where it’s very heavily sport-focussed.

“That was the initial plan – to come up with a fun sporting program, as such.”

So, DS Sports became involved in the government’s ‘Sporting Schools’ initiative – a $280 million program designed to help schools increase children’s participation in sport and connect them with opportunities in community sport.

“We’ve got in-school programs, after school programs, and lunchtime programs,” Dillon explained.

“The government funds Sporting Schools, where schools can apply for a $3500 grant every term to spend on equipment or external programs.

“That’s where we come in. We’re aligned with baseball, tee-ball, volleyball, golf, lacrosse, and badminton – we run just about the whole of Gippsland.

“For any of the schools that nominate that sport, we send a coach to them.”

This term, DS Sports is already involved in nearly a dozen schools.

“It spread more than we’d anticipated,” Staindl said.

“We weren’t even looking at doing Sporting Schools – we were just doing a holiday program. That’s all we wanted to do.

“Steve is the ideas man and he came up with this Sporting Schools idea.

“I’m glad his perseverance wore off on me because it’s actually been really good. We haven’t really promoted ourselves at all, and I think that highlights the need for some kind of avenue in schools for more sport – beyond just your major four or five codes.

“Through my involvement with floorball, I see kids who don’t necessarily do well in footy, cricket, or netball but they don’t want to be excluded and they want to be good at something. They might find that volleyball is their thing, or golf is their thing.”

At the moment, DS Sports has more than half a dozen coaches on its books.

“Our coaches are in there running the program, connecting with the kids, being positive, and getting to know them – having a fun, engaging program – that’s what we want,” Dillon said.

“That then has the transition into our holiday program, which we’re launching in April.”

Staindl continued: “This is one of the fastest growth corridors in the southern hemisphere, so there are parents and kids moving out here who are new to the area and we’ve gone from being a totally football-dominated landscape – it used to be footy and cricket and that’s all you played – and now we’re multicultural, we’ve got all these new and wonderful sports being played, and no one is here facilitating them.

“I can’t believe there wasn’t anything here already. It just proves how important these other sports are as well for kids.”

The DS Sports April school holiday program includes themed days with Cody Weightman from the Western Bulldogs, Ryan Scott from Western United, and Nicole Faltum from the Melbourne Stars.

For more information, visit the ‘DS Sports’ Facebook page, call 0448 186 859 or email sportsdsptyltd@gmail.com