ENOSS Newsletter #3

The third ENOSS Newsletter presents the conference topics chosen by the European community of sport schools and announces a call for speakers.

You can read the browser version of Newsletter #3 here.


ENOSS Newsletter #2

The second ENOSS Newsletter addresses the launch of the new ENOSS website and offers an update on the ENOSS Conference 2021.

You can read the browser version of Newsletter #2 here.


Conference keynote speaker: Ruan Schlebusch

ENOSS is delighted to announce the keynote speaker of this year's ENOSS Conference: Ruan Schlebusch. The cosmopolitan is a leading African expert for talented athlete support and personal development of athletes.

Ruan acts as the Managing Director of Sportsthink 360, a sports consultancy based in Cape Town, South Africa which runs off-field support programmes for talented athletes in cooperation with sport schools and clubs. Furthermore, Ruan works as the National Player Development Manager for the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA). In this role, he is the main responsible for the implementation of the national dual career programme in Cricket, one of the most popular sports in South Africa. The former teacher lives with his wife, daughter and two dogs in Cape Town.

The story of the fire lily

In January 2021, Sportsthink 360 implemented a nationwide school project called “Thriving in the shadow of COVID” which delivers workshops in both sporting and non-sport environments to help children and teenagers unpack the highs and lows of this challenging period, build resilience and develop their personal game plan. In the light of this project, Ruan will deliver the ENOSS Conference 2021 keynote entitled "The story of the fire lily".

"A fire lily is a South African flower. This flower only disperses seeds after a fire, ensuring that the most important thing regenerates first. A most relevant strategy also for systems in education and sport searching for both recovery and innovation..."
Ruan Schlebusch

In his keynote, Ruan will reflect upon his professional experiences in the course of the pandemic and draw practical conclusions for sport schools.

  1. Reflecting on the “Thriving in the shadow of COVID” project: What remained important to the athletes even in a non-sport environment and is therefore arguably an essential of talented athlete support?
  2. The benefit of the pandemic: What were the weaknesses exposed in the pandemic and how can this analysis contribute to a programmatic fast forward in sport schools?
  3. The fire lily: New growth is inevitable. The pandemic is an incomparable opportunity for sport schools to shape this growth.

Ruan Schlebusch: Fast facts

Profile

Experienced in and passionate about all aspects of athlete education and support. Clients range from Under 9s playing their first competitive match to retired ex-internationals.

Areas of expertise

  • Athlete support
  • Athlete education
  • Dual career management
  • Talks and workshops
  • System development and support
  • Coach education

Scope of work

  • Worked with over 1000 athletes in more than 20 sports
  • Junior amateurs to professionals representing their country
  • Federations, schools, clubs and academies
  • Team and individual sports
  • Local and international

Connect with Ruan Schlebusch via LinkedIn here.


ENOSS Newsletter #1

The first ENOSS Newsletter features a "Save the Date!" for the ENOSS Conference 2021 and the call for our EU-wide survey among European sport schools.

You can read the browser version of Newsletter #1 here.


Luxembourg to host 2nd ENOSS Conference

The ENOSS Conference 2021 has found its home: The virtual event will be hosted by Sportlycée Luxembourg, supported by TW1N.

Since their EU Presidency in 2015, Luxembourg has made impressive steps forward in their structural development of athletes support services. As a fundamental puzzle piece of the Luxembourgish dual career system, the Sportlycée is a public sport school with the mission to help talented athletes combine sport and education on secondary level. The national programme is run in cooperation with sport federations and the Federal Ministry of Sport.

Sportlycée Luxembourg key facts

    • 400 student-athletes from 20 different sport disciplines (national federations)
    • 50 teachers working together with 60 national sport coaches
    • Boarding school
    • Large offer of talent support services: dual career counselling, sport psychological support, nutrition counselling, special service to assist student-athletes to manage their periods of absence from school due to competitions or training camps

The European dimension

Sportlycée Luxembourg has a strong ambition to continuously innovate its dual career environment. Bringing in European expertise is seen as a key factor for further development within the institution. Consequently, director Pascal Schaul explains the school’s motives to host the ENOSS Conference 2021:

Having been one of the founding members of Benelux in 1944, of the UN in 1945, of NATO in 1948 and of the Council of Europe in 1948, Luxembourg became one of the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which would itself evolve to become the European Union we know today. The continuous engagement in the context of these historical milestones in the creation and the development of the European idea are part of the DNA of Luxembourg. Since the creation of the Sportlycée in 2012, the exchange of best practices on a European level helped us develop our school and increase the quality of our dual career services. Being inspired by the success and the positive dynamics of the first annual conference of ENOSS held in Berlin in 2019, we are looking forward to contribute to the development of the European Network of Sport Schools by hosting the second annual conference. We strongly believe that there are a lot of things to learn from each other which will be beneficial for the student-athletes from all across Europe.

In the next months, our website will gradually introduce you to more details of the ENOSS Conference 2021. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know about the latest of the network.


Save the date: 2nd ENOSS Conference

The European Network of Sport Schools is delighted to announce: The 2nd ENOSS Conference will take place on 1-2 December 2021 in the form of a virtual event.

2019 marked the starting point for a European Network of Sport Schools (ENOSS), with the first ever ENOSS Conference being held in the Olympic Stadium of Berlin and Schul- und Leistungssportzentrum Berlin. This conference united professionals from 16 European countries, spanning school managers, teachers, sport coaches, psychologists, counsellors, policy-makers, and delegates from the European Commission.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisation of a conference in 2020 turned out not to be feasible. Now, with the conditions slowly improving, ENOSS is committed to reinforce its efforts to interconnect sport schools in Europe. In this regard, we are delighted to announce the 2nd ENOSS Conference on 2-3 December 2021.

Back on Track : New Ways

Without a doubt: The last 16 months have been a huge challenge. This counts for both talented athletes and practitioners. In the Corona crisis, sport schools were asked to come up with new strategies to navigate their systems through wild waters.

The ENOSS Conference 2021 will aim to help sport schools benefit from sharing the multifaceted innovationthat has been created across European sport schools in, and thanks to this difficult period. "Back on Track : New Ways" is the corresponding theme of the conference.

Given the variables accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic, the ENOSS Conference 2021 will take place online and be free of charge to make it possible for a maximum amount of European practitioners to join the event. Simultaneously, the organisors will strive to create a most interactive virtual conference to enable practitioners to meet, discuss and exchange expertise and experience - even in digital form.

In the next months, our website will gradually introduce you to more details of the ENOSS Conference 2021. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know about the latest of the network.


This was the 1st ENOSS Conference

From 7-8 November 2019, the first ever ENOSS Conference entitled "The Next Step" was held in Berlin, Germany. Like-minded professionals in education and sport from 16 European countries followed the invitation of the ENOSS consortium to network and exchange best practice.

Day 1 of #enoss2019 was dedicated to the topic of health. International experts, namely Markus Flemming (SLZB, Germany), Andreas Hülsen (OSP Berlin, Germany), Laurent Carnol (LIHPS, Luxembourg) or Jürgen Dietrich/Andrea Stegmann/Claudius Schäfer (Brillat-Savarin Schule, Germany) shared multi-sided insights into their routine with talented athletes, spanning health-related dimensions such as sport psychology, dual career or nutrition.

Day 2, conducted in the spectacular location of the Olympic Stadium of Berlin, pursued the mission to initiate a European Network of Sport Schools. In his opening keynote, ENOSS co-initiator Wolfgang Stockinger (TWIN, Austria) emphasized the necessity of strategic European cooperation:

"The quality of services provided by sport schools in cooperation with policy makers and sport bodies is of vital importance for sustainable pathways of aspiring athletes, in amateur as well as in professional sports. A network like ENOSS can be an important catalyst for innovative dual career practice across borders."

Following, the international delegates concretized the requirements for the development of a European network in the form of expert work groups.

"The goals of this conference were exceeded. The instant success of this first-time-event makes clear that the timing for ENOSS is right, since EU sport policy is likely to keep focusing on the topic of dual career in the coming years."

ENOSS co-initiator Philipp Struwe (SLZB, Germany)

Thank you to all international delegates who made the 1st ENOSS Conference a big success! If you are interested in becoming a future member of ENOSS, please get in touch with us.

Downloads


Making the next step: A European Network of Sport Schools

In the EU, the number of athletes in need of dual career support services adds up to more than 120.000 in every Olympic cycle. Within competitive systems, European sport schools play a crucial role in the development of athletic talent. For this reason, a German-Austrian consortium aims to foster the establishment of a European Network of Sport Schools (ENOSS).

The quality of services of sport schools in cooperation with policy makers and sport bodies is of vital importance for the sustainable pathways of aspiring athletes, in amateur as well as in professional sports. In 25 out of the 28 EU member states, sport schools at secondary level offering specific dual career support to talented athletes can be found.

This means that this type of schools represent one main common ground of dual career delivery in the European Union. However, despite the history of sport schools in the EU, a specific network between these schools on European level does still not exist. Time for change, time for making the next step.

1st ENOSS Conference in Berlin

Initiated by the ENOSS co-creators Philipp Struwe (SLZB, Germany) and Wolfgang Stockinger (TW1N, Austria), and jointly organized by the SLZB, the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Families, and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, the first ever European Network of Sport Schools Conference will take place in the Olympic Stadium of Berlin, Germany. In the belief of the ENOSS consortium, systematizing the connections and learning arenas between sport schools will substantially contribute to improve service quality within these specific institutions, facilitate the mobility of both talented athletes and practitioners, and inspire the development of trans-national projects.

Registration for the ENOSS Conference 2019 is now open. The official conference programme can be downloaded here.