PORT Adelaide players will hit the road tomorrow, visiting 38 schools and 17 junior footy clubs in regional areas around South Australia.

The players will fan out across the Fleurieu and Yorke Peninsulas and the state’s mid-North, as well as Ceduna, Roxby Downs, Yalata, Koonibba and Streaky Bay.

At the school visits the players will speak at assemblies and classrooms, discussing their pathway from junior footballer to elite athlete and some of the challenges they have had along the way.

They will also talk about making healthy lifestyle choices, including the importance of eating and sleeping well, being physically active, and not smoking.

Port Adelaide Chief Executive Mark Haysman says the visits are part of the club’s community program for 2010, which also included a two-day community camp in Port Lincoln earlier in the year.

“These visits are also additional to the Power’s ongoing Community Youth Program, through which we will visit more than 180 primary schools in 2010 with Adelaide Thunderbirds and Adelaide Lightning players,” Haysman said.

“It’s great for us to be able to get out and visit so many people outside of the Adelaide metropolitan area in one day, forge some terrific connections out in those communities, and deliver positive messages to the kids.

“Our junior membership has increased by more than 600 this year, and these sorts of visits are also invaluable in that.”

Towns to be visited include Victor Harbor, Goolwa, Yankalilla, Myponga, Willunga, Murray Bridge, Clare, Bute, Wallaroo, Ardrossan, Moonta, Two Wells, Virginia, Hamley Bridge, Mallala, Owen, Port Wakefield, Balaklava, Birdwood and Nuriootpa.

In addition to the regional visits, Power players Justin Westhoff and David Rodan will promote the Premier's Be Active Challenge, visiting schools in Plympton and Highgate.