BRICK – Sports Saturdays have returned, bringing free fitness sessions to Brick Township kids helping to build their bodies and minds.
The program, sponsored by the Brick Municipal Anti-Drug Coalition, is designed to guide young athletes and “help them achieve their personal best physically, mentally and emotionally in both sports and life.”
Sports Saturday bridges drug use prevention with enhancement of fitness levels, sports training, food nutrition, development of leadership qualities, problem solving and other pro-social behaviors.
“We reinstated BMAC so that we could provide the young people of Brick Township with programs like Sport Saturday,” Mayor John G. Ducey said. “This program will not only help young people improve their athletic abilities, it will give them tools to help them become better people.”
The program is open to boys and girls ages 9 through 12 and offers 90-minute training sessions from March 19 through June 11 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Civic Plaza, 270 Chambers Bridge Road. There are two sessions each Saturday, 8:30 a.m. or 10:30 a.m.
The program is free, but parents need to register their children. Kids can be signed up for one session or multiple sessions, and there is a limit of 30 children per session.
All trainers within the program are certified physical education teachers as well as youth sports trainers from the Mentor Academy of New Jersey.
Councilwoman Andrea Zapcic expressed how these programs can be important in the fight against opioid addiction.
“The drive towards more professionalism in youth sports has caused an increase in over-use related orthopedic injuries in children ages 12 and up. Evidence suggests that a youth’s first exposure to a prescription opiate is often for treatment of injury or post-operative pain,” Zapcic said.
According to studies, “youth exposed to opiates (prescribed) before high school graduation have a 33% increased risk of using opiates recreationally in the years after graduation, including those with a previous unfavorable attitude toward drug use.”
Sport Saturday is funded through the BMAC grant provided by the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (GCADA).
If you are interested in signed up your child to Sport Saturday, you can visit the Recreation Office, 270 Chambers Bridge Road, Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., call 732-262-1053 or register online at register.communitypass.net/bricktownship.
