Belmont Primary School pupils met injured AFL star Patrick Dangerfield while learning to apply science to footy through Geelong Cats initiative BioCATS on Monday.
“It’s been running at the club for 10 years now and we’ve had over 15,000 kids,” said Dangerfield, currently recovering from surgery following a major ankle injury.
“I suppose it’s just another commitment from our club to the community, promoting sport and science, and it’s always really well received.”
Dangerfield described catching up with the kids in person for the BioCATS program as “really special” after COVID-19 forced Geelong Cats to put many such initiatives on hold or move them online.
“Clearly that’s one of the challenges we’ve all faced over the past 12 months,” he said.
“It’s one thing to have video conferencing and that sort of thing, but it’s nice to be able to be face-to-face with the kids to promote science and living healthy lives.
“Hopefully we stay on top of COVID as a nation and we can back to being more involved in schools.”
BioCATS is a weekly initiative run through Belmont’s BioLAB teaching primary school students to use science, maths and teamwork to learn more about football, sport and the human body.
The students can experience a day in the life of an elite athlete through GPS tracking and analysis, and learn the science of nutrition, hydration and even handballing through the program.
