AYR UNITED have been out at schools across South Ayrshire, educating kids about the importance of nutrition and regular exercise.

The club’s academy has been out in force at 10 primary schools in rural or deprived areas to deliver their six-week program.

Academy coaches embarked on the health kick for schools after they sealed sponsorship from Heart Research UK and Subway.

Their nutrition course encouraged kids to fill out a logbook and understand what makes their hearts ticket and how to look after them.

Each pupil was given a logbook with a message from the club’s manager Ian McCall as well an expert lesson on how to feed a pro footballer.

The coaches then got kids to engage with ideas on how to be healthy in the classrooms before putting them through their paces with 30-minute workouts and fun games.

Ross Armour of the Ayr United Academy told the Ayr Advertiser: “It’s all about early intervention, getting to young people before they get to start. Educating children about what they need to do.

“The program has been a success the kids have really enjoyed it.

“We kept a link to football, we had a message from manager Ian McCall on the front page of their books, and we gave them a fun challenge of designing a pre-match meal for Lawrence Shankland.

“It made it easier to deliver and gave real life examples that children could relate to.

“Not everyone likes football, but we made sure everyone could get involved in our sessions by adding tricks and tag games.

“We have probably spent time and helped between 450/500 pupils which is an amazing achievement over just six weeks.”

With the program being a success, Ross is hoping to get out to expand to more schools.

Ross added: “It’s definitely something we would like to do again. If we can get an appropriate source of funding to do it again, we would to get around even more schools.”