Ricky Stuart, George Gregan, David Furner and Matt Giteau all walked the halls of St Edmund's College during their school days.
The school is now taking its well-loved sport program to the next level by forming a sports academy in partnership with the University of Canberra.
The academy will give students the chance to tailor their subjects to their interest in sport and widen their options for studying at the university through an alternate entry pathway.
In time, St Edmund's alumni who go on to study at the University of Canberra will return to the school for professional placement.
Associate professor Julie Cooke, who is the head of the University of Canberra school of rehabilitation and exercise science, said the academy will help the students build an identity and figure out where they want to go in life.
"When you think about sport, many people think it's playing sport, but there's a lot behind the scenes and hopefully these the boys going through the sports academy will realise that it takes a whole gamut of professions for that successful outcome of sport," Dr Cooke said.
"We expect that the boys will have a variety of ambitions and whether that be in sport and exercise science, or sports journalism, media, management or commerce, it's very broad."
St Edmund's College principal Joe Zavone started talks with the university about two years ago after seeing a similar program at another Edmund Rice school in Melbourne.
"It's not the typical pathway to tertiary education so it allows boys who might not have considered a tertiary education to consider if that's suitable for them, or it allows boys who wanted a more tailored program to have a tertiary pathway," he said.
"Normally students in Canberra would have a diversity of subjects to have that pathway to university, but this allows more of a sports focused package of subjects for those boys."
Students competing in sport at an elite level dedicate many hours to training and competitions and can find it difficult to balance sport with academic studies.
Mr Zavone said the sports academy offered a challenging package of subjects but would ease the balance of study and elite sport.
About a dozen boys in year 12 will be eligible to join the academy after the July holidays while about 20 in year 11 will also be eligible.
Year 12 student Andrew McFarlane, 17, said he was considering studying a bachelor of health science at the University of Canberra.
He said the partnership was a great opportunity to continue sport while also focusing on academic studies.
"I played rugby union all through my schooling at Eddies and I played a lot of sports and I'm also very into the academic [side]," he said.
"To not worry about the whole ATAR to get into university is crucial and obviously will benefit your sport."
Mr Zavone said schools needed to make connections in the community to meet the needs of future students.
"In 2022 and beyond, schools can't survive if they continue that model of enclosed, standalone institutions, in terms of opportunities, in terms of pathways, in terms of dealing with specific needs of students, in terms of expanding the pathways that they offer."
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