College celebrates rugby partnership
KING George V 6th form College has linked up with Southport Rugby Football Club to put the sport firmly back on the agenda.
The partnership means that the club’s head coach, Neil Ryan, who also coaches the Lancashire
U20 team, will coach the KGV college team every Tuesday as part of the sports academy programme.
The sports academy is pitched at students who are studying a varied advanced level programme at the college, but also still want to play the sports they enjoyed at school as extra curriculum activities and to a high standard.
The sports academy also offers football, badminton, netball and basketball too.
As part of an extensive refurbishment over the summer holidays, the college has a new multi use games arena (Muga).
This is an all-weather floodlit pitch, which makes it perfect for “after college” training all year round.
SRFC has also decided to hold weekly training sessions on the surface.
The college team started training last week and have already played their first match.
College principal Anne-Marie Francis said: “Many of our students have played rugby competitively at school and are keen to keep this up when they join the college, in addition to their academic programme.
“Naturally we wanted to support this, so following the completion of our fantastic new Muga, we have joined forces with Southport Rugby Club.
“The partnership with SRFC is so exciting.
“Not only will it enable the students to achieve high quality coaching and represent the college competitively, but it is also an excellent way to help them combat stress, stay fit and make friends from different subject areas too, which are all such important parts of college life.
“It may also mean that when they move on from KGV, they can play for their future university.”
Steve Olive, chairman of Southport RFC, added:
“We are really pleased to have joined forces with KGV on this.
“It is great news that rugby is now a key part of the sports academy programme at the college and we are delighted to provide our head coach to train their team.
“Many of our younger players at the club already play rugby for their high schools, so it is fantastic that when the time comes, they can now play for their college too.”