St Francis de Sales’ new state-of the-art sports centre is on the ball for students, staff and local residents.
It’s not just the students and staff at Mount Barker’s St Francis de Sales College who are proud of their groundbreaking new sports centre: the local Adelaide Hills community is pretty chuffed, too.
The $10.2 million Community Sports Centre opened in November 2018 and has become an integral part of the sporting landscape of Mount Barker and its surrounding towns. The Eastern Hills Basketball Association and Eastern Mavericks Basketball Club have both taken up permanent tenancy at the centre, which attracts more than 2500 players and 2800 spectators every month.
“It’s really been a great boost for the local community and there’s great pride from people to know that facility is there in their home town, whether that be Mount Barker or the broader Hills community,” says Gavin McGlaughlin, principal of St Frances de Sales College. “There is great interest from young people in representing their home townships in the Hills, so they are very excited to be able to do it in a facility of this standard.”
Designed to meet the standards of the International Basketball Federation, the new facility features four basketball courts equipped to host international events as well as a generous function room, commercial kitchen, four changeroom facilities and climate control mechanisms to ensure the comfort of all. “It’s an outstanding facility, unrivalled on most school properties across Australia” McGlaughlin says. “People who come are just blown away with the quality and services on offer.”
For the college’s own students, the new facility also offers the opportunity to learn from some of basketball’s best local talent. “Many of the Adelaide 36ers players play with their local state league clubs so it does afford our young people the chance to get up close and personal with those elite-level basketballers,” McGlaughlin says.
The sports centre is just the first stage of a $27 million development which includes plans for a complete rebuilding of the Junior School and a new Catholic Early Care and Learning Centre. “From birth to age 18, young people and their families will experience the great learning opportunities our college presents, all in the one place and the one community,” McGlaughlin says. “That distinguishes us from many of the schools in the Adelaide Hills.” Work on the project is expected to be completed by July 2020.
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