Scotland's future stars have perfect start at Borders centre of excellence

Published on Thursday 3 March 2011 20:04

A BORDERS College initiative launched three years ago to provide sporting opportunities is beginning to pay dividends with leading students being signed up by professional clubs.

The Borders Academy of Sporting Excellence (BASE) was devised by Richie Gray, a former PE teacher, SRU development officer and academy coach, in the wake of the SRU's decision to scrap the Borders professional rugby team in 2007.

Working with the college principal Liz McIntyre and then chairman Dave Kilshaw, he identified the risk of teenage talent drifting out of rugby and developed the pioneering courses. It has since grown from 21 rugby students with one lecturer to over 100 now involved in four courses - rugby, football, mountain biking and sport and exercise - with five full-time lecturers and three part-time at the new multi-million pound campus shared with Heriot-Watt University in Galashiels.

One of the first intake in 2008 was Stuart Hogg, an 18-year-old from Hawick who made his professional debut for Glasgow Warriors in the Magners League last Friday and is next season expected to be a fully-fledged pro with the club. Back helping Gray coach current students yesterday, Hogg said: "For me, BASE was quality. I have always wanted to be a professional rugby player and I'd just left school so with no pro team around, this gave me a chance of being in a professional environment training every day, but with the academic stuff on the side.

"The Glasgow academy signed me in 2009, but I was able to keep up my college education last year, so I feel I've had a great start both rugby-wise and with my learning."

On his Glasgow debut, a 16-16 draw with Newport Gwent Dragons, he added: "Friday felt like the longest day of my life, just waiting for the game, but it was brilliant when it came round. To play with and against some of the best players in the Magners League was a dream come true. This weekend we're going down to the Ospreys and I was there last year having a tour of the Liberty Stadium, on a day off from the National U18s tournament, so it's pretty amazing to think I might be involved playing there this weekend."

Glasgow coach Sean Lineen commented: "It's great to see how Stuart has come through. He has bags of potential and has a tremendous skill-set, which is great credit to his development in Hawick, at Borders College and in our academy, and his own attitude."

Nicola Halfpenny was one of the first female students and she made her debut for Scotland last season, also playing in the recent Women's Rugby World Cup.There are similar stories in football with Ryan Goodfellow having signed for Dunfermline FC, Aiden Lauder joining Berwick Rangers and other students currently undergoing trials with professional clubs, while World, European and Scottish mountain biking champions Lewis Buchanan, Sam Flockhart and Joe Connell are now racing for pro teams Team CRC, Team Lapierre and Team Sunn Montgenvre respectively.

Course leader Gray explained: "We have the guiding principles of 'raising attainment, employability and performance', and see ourselves as being 51 per cent education and 49 per cent sport.

"The rugby kicked it off because of the talent around here and the enthusiasm to fill the void left by the Borders professional team, but we have rugby players now from as far afield as Skye and Elgin and footballers from Edinburgh and Glasgow, and further afield.

"The Borders is already a magnet for downhill mountain biking with the world-class facilities at Innerleithen and Peebles, and the three mentioned are now involved with French teams, so I can see that aspect of the academy really growing and attracting people from across Europe."

He continued: "A major problem we have in Scotland is that we judge people too young and when a statement is made on a player - that he 'can't pass', 'can't tackle', or is 'too slow', for example - it can stick with them for years.

"Yet, if you look at the work being done at the Institute of Sport through talent manager Tony Stanger on uncovering late developers and moving them into Olympic sports, there is clear evidence that the Scottish athletes who go on to achieve world success often come through later.

"Stuart perhaps doesn't fit that because he was always going to be good, but BASE still gave him an opportunity to do something positive when he left school at 16 and stay in rugby, but we have a lad Lee Millar from Elgin never picked up in trials, who came to the college, plays for Gala and has just been picked by Scotland U20s A team.

"There will be thousands of youngsters across Scotland not picked up yet, for whatever reason, who could be real sporting talents if given the chance. The other encouraging development for me is the way some of our students not at the elite end are moving into other levels of sport and helping local clubs."

The blend of sport with education is an attractive one for many students, the college working to the BTEC vocational qualifications pioneered in England, which faculty head Lynne Gilchrist endorses as best suited to these courses. So as well as the skills and physical side to the courses, where they follow a structured strength and conditioning programme, there is a lot of theory involving sports psychology, physiology, the development of fitness, nutrition, technical and tactical aspects of sport, analysis and testing procedures.

They are also aligned with higher education through the UCAS points system so Borders College students can, and do, move on from Galashiels to other college or university courses.

Borders College has confirmed a cut in its funding of 750,000, in common with the financial pressures across education in Scotland. Government funding across sport is also falling and governing bodies are suffering major financial constraints. The rising demand for places suggest that Gray and his colleagues at Borders College have started something with potential, but innovative courses such as the BASE project could also help to create an enterprising new path through tough times for Scottish sport.