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.

by ENOSS

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.

by ENOSS