On the 17 and 19th of October, the Walter Nash Centre in Taita will be the site of the inaugural Hutt City Primary Schools Integrated Football Event.

This event is being run by Lower Hutt Primary Schools Sports Association in conjunction with Capital Football and Neelu Jennings, a disabled athlete and advocate, who provided the inspiration to create the integrated football game, which will feature at the event.

“Initially I put my idea to Blair Duncan from Capital Football, explaining that we needed to create a game which opened up the choices that disabled people had about how they played sport. Traditionally disabled people have only played disability specific games but I see so much more that can be gained by creating sports that everyone can play together.” said Jennings.

Capital Football Operations Manager, Blair Duncan, was excited at the challenge that was set. “Neelu’s instruction was to create a game that was flexible and could cater for the people who showed up on the day.  So that is what we did - we took our lead from participants and shaped the game around them.” says Blair.

Capital Football in collaboration with Jennings have been holding sessions with a wide range of keen people with different disabilities, as well as people who do not identify as disabled - Older people, young kids, people of all genders, a variety of health conditions, and even ex-athletes with long term injuries. The game has been slowed down to a walking pace and only has a few key rules that everyone can follow.  The key thing is that everyone participates and has fun together. This builds social cohesion and allows diverse communities to understand each other better.

LHPSSA Director, Sophie Wills, would love to see the Hutt primary schools giving this game a go. “The game promotes team building, camaraderie and understanding and allows a sector of children who might not get fully included in a game an equal opportunity to participate. These are core values that we want to promote at this age. Hopefully this event will give schools a taster of the game, so they can do more within their own school settings.”

Neelu won an award at the Hutt Valley Sports Awards for her creation of the integrated suite of sports which includes integrated rugby and sitting volleyball. She hopes that integrated sports will become a mainstream part of the way sports are taught, and played at schools right from primary through secondary. She is also keen to see these sports played in a social, community setting providing opportunities for integration of the harder to reach members of our communities such as disabled people.
 

Contact Neelu Jennings 027 308 7478, Jack Morrissey 027 614 9220