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Speaker 1: See and a doctoral student at Aukland University, says our

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Speaker 1: high performance athletes shouldn't have to choose between their sporting

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Speaker 1: careers and their education. Steve Roberts has been speaking to

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Speaker 1: up and coming athletes both here in New Zealand and

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Speaker 1: in the college sport mad USA as part of his research.

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Speaker 1: Now he says that the athletes here are missing out

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Speaker 1: on educational opportunities because our high level sporting organizations and

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Speaker 1: universities aren't working together. Steve Roberts is with us this evening. Hi, Steve, So,

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Speaker 1: why do you think our athletes are missing out?

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Speaker 2: It's just the system they have and what they're left

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Speaker 2: with once their careers are over. They don't seem to

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Speaker 2: have and be getting the same opportunities that the American

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Speaker 2: interviewees I had are getting and can realize.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I've got mates in the US who've played

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Speaker 1: Division one basketball and that kind of thing who were

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Speaker 1: just like basically able to access facilities that professional athletes

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Speaker 1: in New Zealand could only dream of. But spell it

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Speaker 1: out for us. What are the facilities for athletes in

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Speaker 1: the US college system like compared to the facilities here.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's not even it's not even comparable. You know

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Speaker 2: how all Blacks don't even have facilities like that. It

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Speaker 2: goes further than that, The Yankees don't even have facilities

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Speaker 2: that some of these college teams have. It's the resources

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Speaker 2: that they can put behind you and another world. And

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Speaker 2: it's difficult to understand if you if you don't know, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's it.

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Speaker 1: I I mean, we do see some New Zealanders go

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Speaker 1: to the US on college scholarships to study over there

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Speaker 1: and access those high performance facilities. But what do you

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Speaker 1: think in an ideal scenario, we could be doing better

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Speaker 1: in New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: You know, we have the pieces to give an experience

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Speaker 2: like the US. It's just a matter of how we

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Speaker 2: arrange those pieces. We have the universities, you know, if

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Speaker 2: we compare what universities have to national sports organizations. You know,

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Speaker 2: if you look at the Blues, the Blues have a

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Speaker 2: strength and conditioning team of a couple of people and

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Speaker 2: a couple of physios, and you know, the University of

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Speaker 2: Auckland has a school dedicated to that. They have a

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Speaker 2: school dedicated to nutrition, to sports science, to all of

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Speaker 2: those things. It's you have to be able to access

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Speaker 2: those types of things and the development and the development

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Speaker 2: chain to make it worthwhile for them.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon there are sports that are especially well

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Speaker 1: suited to working more closely with universities.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there are, I'd probably say, well, you know, especially

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Speaker 2: the ones in New Zealand that don't need to send

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Speaker 2: people to the US because that's kids who go after

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Speaker 2: the US. But those US schools are essentially pain to

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Speaker 2: develop athletes. That's a that's a system that does it

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Speaker 2: for the rest of the world. You know, we go.

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Speaker 2: I looked at that kid from the University of Wisconsin.

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Speaker 2: It's the swimmer that just swam the fastest fifty meter

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Speaker 2: freestyle in New Zealand history out of the University of Wisconsin.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's always going to be hard.

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Speaker 1: I would have thought for our universities to compete for

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Speaker 1: the NCAA environment over there. But what about the educational

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Speaker 1: side of things? Why is giving young athletes an education

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Speaker 1: alongside supporting their training so important?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's quite an it's quite an involved question that

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Speaker 2: because you know, one from a training point of view,

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Speaker 2: I'd much prefer my athletes show up for practice having

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Speaker 2: sat in a classroom that's their condition, then being out

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Speaker 2: on their feed all day working a laboring job. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, that's common sense to want that to turn

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Speaker 2: up to your practice. The other one is opportunity after

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Speaker 2: the sport, and the circular flow of money that comes

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Speaker 2: from education. You know, a degree is worth one point

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Speaker 2: five million dollars more in your working life than someone

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Speaker 2: that doesn't have one. Yeah, you know, so access to those.

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Speaker 2: A master's is two point five and a PhD is

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Speaker 2: three point five million more. So creating that type of

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Speaker 2: alumni and that kind of circular motion of achievement, academics

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Speaker 2: and sport money, it all comes back on itself and

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Speaker 2: it's self sustaining.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, oh that's really interesting. Thank you so much, Steve,

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time. Steve Roberts as a doctoral student

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Speaker 1: at Auklan University's Faculty of Education and Social Work. It's

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Speaker 1: interesting I was working in the US when Steven Adams

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Speaker 1: was studying and playing basketball, and he ended up graduating,

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Speaker 1: as I think they called him a student scholar or

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Speaker 1: an athlete scholar, like compared to lots of the other

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Speaker 1: people who were on basketball scholarships. He apparently did quite

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Speaker 1: well in the academic department. Although I don't know something

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Speaker 1: tells me he's probably gonna be okay, probably not gonna

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Speaker 1: be out there looking for a job anytime soon. You're

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Speaker 1: hoping that Steven Adams has earned a few million and

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Speaker 1: banked that away by now. For more from Hither Duplessy

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be from

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Speaker 1: four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.