Sarah Powell

Champions Academy founder Sarah Powell was inspired to develop the program after seeing the decline in community and services in smaller townships in the Cleve district.

Growing up in Darke Peak before working around the country in her early career, she was saddened to return and find the football club and much of what brought the community together severely diminished by rural exodus.

Mrs Powell said during her childhood, sporting clubs played a very important role in facilitating community in rural areas.

“We didn’t just go there to play sport,” she said.

“We went there because it offered a relief from the isolation of rural living.”

She said sporting clubs taught children and reminded adults to be community oriented, to volunteer and to be leaders and organisers.

“When a club closes its doors, we lose that incubator for community leadership,” she said.

(Source: Eyre Peninsula Tribune)