Newcastle Knights players mentor Indigenous students

"No junk food for the next three months" - that's the promise of Newcastle Knights prop, Daniel Tolar, who is mentoring a special group of high school students.

Daniel and his team mate Michael Young today 'fessed up' to their weaknesses and set some personal goals for the next three months, at the same time helping the group of 20 indigenous students to do the same.

The Newcastle mentoring session at Wests is part of a programme in which the players have dedicated time to help mentor the students on health, fitness, study and school attendance.

Today's session had the players and the students in the gym, talking about how to maintain a diet and exercise routine, and setting fitness goals to monitor over the next few months.

Throughout the rest of the year, the players will help mentor and motivate the students in areas such as academic goals, class attendance, school assignments and homework.

"We get a real buzz out of this, as we feel that we are helping achieve some real educational and health outcomes for the kids," said Daniel.

"We players feel they are contributing to something important and really enjoy participating in these sorts of programmes.

"This is one of our Community Alliance activities with Coal & Allied, in which we are taking part in programmes designed to help make a real difference to people in the Hunter Valley and Newcastle areas."

Coal & Allied Aboriginal Relations Specialist, Cate Sims, said the programme was being run for 20 indigenous students from Singleton High School through the school's Ka-Wul Cultural Indigenous, Education and Cultural Resource Centre.

Coal & Allied provides funding to the Centre through the Aboriginal Development Consultative Committee, and identified an opportunity to further support the work of the Centre through the Community Alliance with the Knights.

"Some of these are kids have found it challenging to engage in their schoolwork and find the discipline and motivation to attend class," Ms Sims said.

Now they have three very high profile mentors in their life who are dedicating time to help them, and it is helping to improve their motivation and enable them to achieve personal goals.

"This programme is designed to set small achievable goals that will have big wins."

Media contacts:
Newcastle Knights - Stephen Mount 0412 291 911
Coal & Allied - Alison Smith 0438 787 038

Media Release - Newcastle Knights players mentor Indigenous students [PDF: 40 KB]