The award from the SFP’s Community Initiative scheme will be utilised by Airdrieonians F.C. to launch their “Diamond Life” project for 75 local school children over a six week period which will see the club’s Director of Coaching, Eddie Wolecki Black and Chief Executive, Iain King deliver six separate sessions around the topics of health, fitness, business, football and the media. These entertaining and informative lessons will be held in the club’s Boardroom at the Excelsior Stadium (which will become the classroom for the day) and on the pitch itself or at the club’s training pitch adjacent to the stadium. The first session will concentrate on “Excellence at Barcelona”, where Eddie Wolecki Black studied as a coach and he will give the class an insight into what is expected of the children at La Cantera both as people and as footballers. This will be followed by a session on the field to do some Barca training functions and the kids will then play their own El Clasico to finish! Future lessons will focus on nutrition, including Periodisation, one of the new sciences of football and on the field the children will enjoy a fun, intensive games session to introduce them to the concept of activity then proper rest. Media will be another topic which will be covered and will involve the children interviewing a player in a press conference setting and their homework will include writing an article for use in the match programme and on the club’s social media platforms. On the pitch, a top player will deliver a coaching session which will be filmed to form part of a short video on the “Diamond Life” initiative. Leadership and Communication skills will be the subjects for week thee and four and the course will concentrate on “Decision Making” and “Teamwork” over week five and six. The programme will end with a special graduation day where the children will be invited along to the Excelsior Stadium to have lunch and then enjoy a home game with their classmates. Iain King, the club’s Chief Executive said “The ‘Diamond Life’ programme is designed to improve the children’s knowledge of health and fitness and to spark their imagination through varied work and talks delivered in the club’s Boardroom and from the coaching sessions held on the Excelsior pitch. We hope to be able to establish this project as a sustainable part of each school’s curriculum, with the football club identified as an educational partner and the lasting benefit for the club will be to have our footprint back in the community of the town we serve.”
