Interview conducted by Christophe de l’Onde Carrier
It was through basketball that Claude Arnaud got to know ASM. At the time, there was the project to set up a sports studies, one of the first in France created by a sports club. President Franck wanted at all costs that football level up, men’s basketball and athletics. He therefore asked Claude Arnaud to structure what was called sport studies. The children went to Michelin school and then they did all their sports activities on the ASM site. There was even a boarding school for boys in rue Montlosier. And then there was women’s basketball, tennis, judo and rugby.
– Stephane Hourlier
Who are the sportsmen and women of ASM Omnisports?
It is an audience from all walks of life, from all cultures. ASM Omnisports arrived in 1990 at the Gauthière site. It is a very important turn for the ASM which leaves the bourgeois district of the rue Montlosier to arrive at the heart of the Gauthière, the Plaine, the Croix de Neyrat.
Formerly in this stadium, all the people of the district came to do their sport, it was free and not paying. In 1990, the ASM put up barriers and the site became chargeable. The young people of the neighborhood reacted very badly and it was necessary to show pedagogy. Today, everything is going very well and the young people of the districts are very important in number in all the activities of the club.
– Stephane Hourlier
What made the strength of the ASM is not to star, but it was to value young people.
ASM’s values as seen by Claude Arnaud
Training is and has been a main element, a common thread in all sections, sports training, but also personal training.
“If I am still at ASM, it is because I still find myself in the same values and in the same principles. So for me, it’s the multi-sport spirit that is interesting precisely because all the sections are united. That is to say when there is an important event in a section and the other sections will go there. On Sunday afternoon, there was a women’s basketball game at rue Montlosier, after everyone went down to Michelin to see the game. We were going to see the footballers at Les Gravanches, we were going to see the basketball players. It is this spirit that interests me a lot. I believe what made the strength of the ASM and it was also a bit in my mission, it is not to stardom, but it was to value young people. They had to be valued at all costs, given them values and built on them. Be careful, precisely, that they and they do not take the big head. And today, I think we kept the same tips, that is to say that we are very careful. When a young person arrives here, it is to surround him, it is to supervise him, it is to give him the means to flourish and to become a woman or a man. “
– Stephane Hourlier
ASM on the move, with ASM Omnisports, l’Onde Carrier and France Bleu Pays d’Auvergne
To find out more about ASM Omnisports
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