Serious Sports & School: young people today have all opportunities
A round table discussion of high-calibre personalities on the topic of "Serious sports & school" was held in the assembly hall of the HTL Waidhofen/Ybbs on 6 November. The people who attended this event presented by Sport Harreither were in agreement with each other:"Young people today have all opportunities for their future. The wide range of school types, such as the AFW (Training centre for football and economics) Waidhofen offers all opportunities for young people to combine performance-oriented serious sports and a good education in a sensible manner".
The organisers and the participants in the round-table discussion: Dr. Raimund Harreither, Albert Harreither, Dr. Gerhard Zallinger, Ivica Vastic, Michael Baur, Thomas Sykora and Mag. Reinhard Schimböck (from left).
In the assembly hall of the HTL Waidhofen/Ybbs, the round-table discussion of Sport Harreither was held.
An audience of about 150 people listened to the discussion on the topic of “Serious sports and School“.
The high-calibre members of the panel: Dr. Raimund Harreither, Dr. Gerhard Zallinger, Ivica Vastic, Michael Baur, Thomas Sykora and Mag. Reinhard Schimböck.
The two LASK-Stars Ivica Vastic and Michael Baur told tales out of school to the young who were all ears: “Ernst Happel threw me in at the deep end at the time, and I seized the opportunity. I really had no easy time of it because I still went to HAK in Innsbruck at the time, and there the teachers and the other pupils did not always show understanding for my training units,“ so Michael Baur. Ivica Vastic, who grew up in Croatia, also described the difficult path he had to follow: “I completed my training and studied at the same time. In addition to this, I started playing football in the lower associations in Croatia. When Hajduk Split approached me, I had to make a decision: either studying or playing football. And fortunately everything went well...“
The former slalom ace and Olympic medallist Thomas Sykora had to do it his own way too: “I was a late starter. However, I was able to fully focus on sports thanks to the support of my family. But I had to work hard to finish my education after my sports career because I dropped out of school when I was young – I wouldn’t recommend anyone to do that!“ This is a point of view with which the businessman Dr. Raimund Harreither agrees: “In order to be successful, you have to set your goals and also set yourself deadlines for reaching them. In the long run, the diligent person will always achieve more than the talented one.“
Mag. Reinhard Schimböck, teacher at the HTL Waidhofen and co-initiator of the project AFW, presented the opportunities offered by the innovative school model: “We can already celebrate our first achievements because with Stefan Datzberger, a graduate of our school has already taken the leap in the regional-association first team of Waidhofen.“ The renowned sports scientist Dr. Gerhard Zallinger placed particular emphasis on the fact that “the strong point of such a school sports systems is, on the one hand, that the requirements are exacting with a view to sports as well as to school and organisation. On the other hand, there must always be room for individual solutions. This is the only way to reach the top of the ladder in sports or later in your job.”
After the discussions, numerous football fans seized the opportunity to get autographs from their idols and to take photographs of Vastic and Baur in memory of the event.
