BMAC Offers Sport Saturday Program For Young Athletes

From the Township of Brick:

December 18, 2019

The Brick Municipal Anti-Drug Coalition (BMAC) is proud to once again offer the Sport Saturday program for township boys and girls ages 9 through 12. The program offers young athletes 90 minute training sessions designed to help them achieve their personal best physically, mentally and emotionally in both sports and life.

Sport Saturday sessions are available every Saturday from January 4 through April 11 at the Brick Civic Plaza. Sessions are at either 8:30am or 10:30am. The program is free for participants. Parents can register their children for one or more sessions. There is a limit of 30 children at each session.

Each Sport Saturday training session is 90 minutes. Sport Saturday provides enhancement of general fitness levels, sports specific training, and the importance of leadership qualities, problem solving and character development designed to help youth increase self-esteem, awareness and resiliency as substance use prevention strategies.

“We reinstated BMAC so that we could provide the young people of Brick Township with programs like Sport Saturday,” said Mayor John G. Ducey. “This program will not only help young people improve their athletic abilities, it will give them tools to help them become better people.”

Trainers are provided by Mentor Academy of New Jersey and are certified physical education teachers as well as youth sports trainers.

Council President Andrea Zapcic says programs like this are 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,” said Councilwoman Zapcic.

Council President Zapcic adds that studies show 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).

Register for Sport Saturday in the Recreation Office, 270 Chambers Bridge Road, Monday through Friday, 7:30am – 4pm or online at https://brickrec.twp.brick.nj.us. Call 732-262-1073 for more information.

This press release was produced by the Township of Brick. The views expressed here are the author’s own.