BiG Storage Cheshire Jets are again on track to take the lead in delivering a Healthy Lifestyle Strategy to Local School Children across Flintshire and North Wales thanks to the backing of the Sports Council for Wales.

The ‘Hoops for Health’ programme was launched by the BiG Storage Cheshire Jets in September 2007 and has been so successful that in 2008/2009 BiG Storage Cheshire Jets will deliver ‘Hoops for Health’ to 120 schools in partnership with Cheshire Constabulary.

The major aim of the scheme is to deliver a healthy living programme through professional sporting role models, utilising basketball as an activity to communicate a range of positive health messages to young people in primary schools.

The major focus of informative education and physical implementation includes:

- Healthy nutrition
- Smoking cessation
- The importance of keeping fit and it’s link to a healthy heart
- Alcohol management
- Physical fitness demonstrated through basketball – including coaching and the inclusion of a school team into a local basketball competition

The programme concludes in May when the overall winner of the Chester final will progress to the national Hoops for Health final at The NIA in Birmingham to compete in front of 7,000+ basketball fans.

This year 120 schools across the North West will get the chance to put forward a team to represent themselves at the national Final in Birmingham.

Fronted with a professional delivery by key BiG Storage Cheshire Jets’ players, the scheme which received a £20,000 grant from Sportsmatch Cymru - a Welsh Assembly Government business incentive scheme for sport in Wales, managed by the Sports Council for Wales - is this season being delivered in primary schools across Flintshire and North Wales.

Chair of the Sports Council for Wales, Philip Carling, said:

"With funding and support from the Welsh Assembly Government and the National Lottery, the Sports Council for Wales is helping to transform the sporting landscape in Wales. The considerable investment into community sport, facilities, equipment and coaches has impacted on communities throughout the principality and is helping to raise participation rates across the board.

"We want to hear of bright ideas and projects that will help us continue our mission to get more people in Wales more active, more often."

With health issues dominating the Government’s agenda, the ‘Hoops for Health’ programme is rapidly gaining the support of local Councils and Fire and Rescue Services.