Phoenix Soar Making Dreams Come True

Winning a PS5 is arguably what any 11 or 12 year old dreams of, and that is what South East Melbourne Phoenix's mental health and wellbeing program, Phoenix Soar, written, designed and facilitated by Phoenix, made that dream became a reality.

Phoenix Soar helps and supports grade five and six students to recognise, regulate, and articulate their emotions and understand the importance of seeking help when things aren’t going well. Combining classroom and on court learning, students hear from Phoenix professional athletes via engaging digital content, participate in discussions, complete their own Phoenix Soar workbook, and participate in drills and clinics using their learnings in real world scenarios.

During Term 2 alone, Phoenix Soar was facilitated in 11 schools with 1,100 students. These students were given the opportunity to enter the “Phoenix Soar PS5 Competition”. The PS5 dream coming true for grade 6 student, Suhaani from Casey Fields Primary School.

Kyle Adnam and Mitch Creek ventured out to Casey Fields to present Suhaani with her prize. The atmosphere at the school was electric with Adnam and Creek heading to the school. The cheers were big when Adnam made a 1/2 court shot, but cheers were louder for Suhaani's name when she was announced  as the winner. She was in complete shock and had tears as she accepted her prize. Mother, Kabita, came out from behind the wall to join in the surprise too, she was such a great secret keeper finding out Suhaani won the week before.

(Adnam and Creek with PS5 winner, Suhaani.)

“To see the excitement on all the kids faces when announcing the winner combined with all the positive feedback on the Phoenix Soar program was amazing. A few happy tears were shed from our winner, and it goes to show how much of an impact we can have in the community as a club,” said Adnam. 

Suhaani was not only an excited and worthy prize winner she was also grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Phoenix Soar program.

“I really enjoyed the Phoenix Soar program. It was fun and I am super happy for winning the signed jersey and PS5. Thank you for making it so special and an awesome surprise," she said.

Phoenix Soar is supporting young people to talk about things that generations before found slightly uncomfortable. It is helping the amazing teachers in classrooms everyday not by creating more work for them but by working together with them to support their students. Something that is so important after the last two years. Our teachers are amazing, exhausted humans and anything the Phoenix can do to help is a priority at the club. Phoenix Soar is more than basketball, it’s about using basketball as the vehicle to drive conversations about mental health and wellbeing.

(Phoenix Soar faciliators run the session for students.)

“'The ladder of SUCCESS is BEST climbed by stepping on RINGS of OPPORTUNITY' hence, a big THANK YOU to the Phoenix for their program Phoenix Soar. Thank you for providing the opportunity, time and commitment to a program Suhaani really enjoyed and that goes beyond basketball,” Kabita reflected after Suhaani won her dream PS5. 

“It’s amazing anytime we get to be face-to-face with anyone in the Phoenix community, especially from the Phoenix Soar program. It’s an absolutely spectacular moment just to see what we are teaching, how it affects kids at such a young age and how it affects adults at our age now. Our ability to be transparent and show we’re just like you and you’re just like us, there’s not much difference, it’s pretty special.,” said Creek.  

CLICK HERE to register your school for Phoenix Soar today.

Phoenix Media (19/10/22)