Families Invited to Join Academy Day, Saturday 24th January 2009, 11.00am to 2.30pm

Tennis and Titans

The development of sport in recent years at Ellesmere College has been innovative in that while still looking after the 'grass roots' or beginners, we have also paid attention to those that demonstrate talent and potential. Through doing this we have produced teams and individuals that have achieved national recognition.

Ellesmere College has excellent facilities that include a £1.4m Sports Hall, 25 metre indoor swimming-pool, 6 all-weather floodlit tennis courts, a fitness suite as well as numerous well-maintained rugby and cricket pitches. However, above all Ellesmere College has a group of first class sport specific coaches supported by PE staff that strive for excellence and whose determination has brought considerable sporting success to Ellesmere College for both the School's teams as well as individuals.

For many years Ellesmere College has enjoyed a considerable reputation for sports. For the last 5 years the Rugby Academy has been developing local rugby talent, culminating this summer with three leavers signing professional club contracts to support their rugby development further whilst at University.

For the last two years, the Tennis Academy has also enjoyed success including recently, the U13 Girls' Team being in the final of the National Schools Tennis Competition. With the Head of PE, Helen Goss being a member of the Welsh Ladies' Cricket Team, the development of a Cricket Academy was a natural follow-up. Under the guidance of a dedicated English Cricket Board Level 3 coach, Rod Jones, talent is being recruited to follow in the success of the Rugby and Tennis Academy.

In June 2008 an elite Swimming Centre of Excellence, the Ellesmere College Titans, was started under the direction of Jon Pardoe, a highly-rated level 3 coach with a track record of developing some of the best young swimmers in Shropshire and the Midlands. It is often said in sport that "if you want to be the best you need to train with the best". Ellesmere College Titans already boasts many of the best and most promising young swimmers in the region - with many of them having set the Swimming World alight in 2008 at Level 1 and 2 Open Meets throughout the UK- winning medals by the dozen and recording a number of top 5 nationally ranked times.

Excellent short and long course pool and dryland training facilicities coupled with a first class coaching set up, which also includes British Olympic breaststroke swimmer Darren Mew and regular use of underwater video stroke analysis provide a virtually unrivalled Age Group opportunity to maximise swimming potential.
Along with the Ellesmere College Headmaster, Brendan Wignall, the four Academy Directors will be available on Saturday 24th January 2009 to share with local families what can be achieved for individuals in the Academies and with the support of scholarships and bursaries.

16th January 2009  Back to News