Beyond the Game: How Sport Shapes the Leaders of Tomorrow | #18

Welcome to Unleash youh Impact, Unlock Others, a podcast about inspiring leadership. We hope to bring you grounded wisdom, stories from real leaders and leave you feeling inspired. Let's dive in.

Welcome to Unleash youh Impact Unlock Others, the podcast where we explore leadership that inspires real change. I'm Dave Morris and I'm your host for what I'm calling today a Leaders of the Future episode.

Now, I want to shine a light today on an exciting new initiative that's happening in my county, but it brings leadership development into the world of sports. And that's the launch of the Warwickshire College Group Academy at Pershall College.

For a long time now, Rich and I have believed that leadership isn't confined just to the boardroom. It actually starts wherever potential is nurtured. And through sport, as I found out when I was younger, young people learn resilience.

They learn teamwork, communication skills, self discipline and the courage to strive to be excellent. All very good foundations if you want to be a good leader.

This new academy isn't just about developing athletes, it's about developing future leaders who are equipped to make an impact both on and off the field.

I'll be talking to Becky Brannigan, who's head of Sport at the college and, and she will make the point that for those looking for a powerful hands on alternative to the traditional university route, the Warwickshire College Group sport offers a pathway where talent, ambition and real world experience all come together. So let's dive in, talk to Becky about what the group is planning to do to unlock potential and shape the leaders of tomorrow.

Becky, welcome to our podcast.

Hello.

So you are head of Sport for the Worcestershire College group?

Yes, I am.

And obviously very instrumental in getting the Academy at Pershall off the ground.

Yeah, it's been exciting.

So I'd like to explore your plans for that and how that's going to help develop leadership skills in the students that you're going to have here.

But before that, can we just for people who are listening, explore your background so people know who you are and where you've come from and particularly your experience of sport and leadership.

Yep. So I've been in education for nearly 25 years. I started as a PE teacher in secondary schools.

I've worked in girls schools and mainstream education and then I moved to colleges and I worked in a college in the south coast which had a large sports academies attached to it. And then I moved to Warwickshire college group, gosh, 14 years ago now. I've had various roles here.

Wow. What's your favorite sport of interest?

The sport that I play, or I did play, is netball. My background actually is horse riding, but my daughter's a gymnast. Not that I was ever into gymnastics, but I've become a gymnastics mum.

So, yeah, that's what we do a lot of. There's a lot of tumbling in my life that happens.

Yeah. I have a daughter who's similar, actually. Yeah, a lot of tumbling and flipping over bars and things.

Yeah, yeah. Closing your eyes type of things.

So what has sport given you on a personal level? What have you got from being involved in sport over the years?

I think, if I'm honest, sport gave me a lot of confidence. So I wasn't the most academic student. I would say I would always work really, really hard, but what I was good at is sport.

And when I went to university, actually being able to excel, I really did excel because I was doing the field that I wanted to do and I kind of understand sport and everything around it and it just made sense to me.

And all of a sudden, having been told you're never very academic, I suddenly started actually academically, because then I suddenly realized it's not that I'm not academic, I just are really passionate about certain things.

And what I see quite a lot now, I work in colleges, is that there's a number of students where, you know, education hasn't necessarily been easy for them.

You know, mainstream education isn't for everybody and actually they might be a little bit naughty or they might find it challenging to concentrate in lessons, but what they are really good at is sport. And that can give them confidence, as it did with me, but it can also be used as a sort of carro to help them to achieve academically as well.

Yeah. Because if you enjoy your learning environment, you're going to do better effectively, aren't you?

That's exactly it. And I think everybody, all students are completely different and we need to celebrate them as individuals.

And I think I see a lot with my children growing up now, you know, primary schools, that it was very much like, if they're good at sport, you know, we can't pick them all the time because they're the ones that are getting picked all the time. And then you're like, yeah, but hang on a minute, that person's really good at singing and you pick them for the main part all the time.

And I kind of have that passion that really, if they are good and talented at Something that should be supported all the way through school. I think there's a big push now as well in the fact that, you know, students outside of school. There's not a lot of sport in mainstream education.

It's very dependent on the school and the school's teachers.

And I think, you know, some have parents that believe in it and they're given loads of opportunities to excel in sport and other students aren't given that opportunity because maybe financial reasons or just parents that are really busy or not that interested in it. So I think it'll be.

It's nice in a college where sometimes we notice a natural talent that hasn't actually been explored before and we can help somebody to unleash that.

In terms of your involvement in sport and your now leadership roles that you've got in the college group, what sort of leadership skills do you think that you can trace back to your involvement in sport and what has it given you that you can now use as a leader?

I think probably the biggest one is teamwork, working with different people, you know, understanding, you know, what it's like being on a court, understanding what people are like. Some people can be quite aggressive or emotional on pitch, which is completely different to their normal personality.

So you get used to dealing with different personalities, which I think is really good if you're going to become a leader or a manager. It also, you know, do you know what teaches you about losses as well? When you.

When you don't do as well or you're frustrated because you're injured, it gives you a lot of resilience to keep working really, really hard. And the other thing I think is communication, communicating with various different people.

You know, when I was younger and I was playing with adults, actually, you know, communicating with older people, that confidence, it also gives you.

Actually, you know, I think through my sport, actually, it gave me a lot of pathways into places like work experience and stuff like that, you know, people I would have played netball with. And then maybe I've gone and done experience with them because. And that's how I've got the link.

Or, you know, maybe they've helped me to choose which A levels I was going to do just from that communication and actually speaking with different people. I think my experience of watching current students is anybody who's played sports, certainly to a high level, is time management is the biggest one.

They're really, really good and they're usually very organized because they've had to balance training, work, homework all the way through since they were really little. So actually they're usually quite good at time management and organisation.

Yeah, I agree. It's interesting because one of the leadership roles I've got now is head of men's tennis. It's Pershall Tennis Club and we bring juniors through.

They're a bit younger than the students you're going to have at the college, but we bring them in at 12, 13, if they're good enough. And reflecting on the last few years, some of the things that the parents have told me their kids have got echoes what you said.

Teamwork, emotional resilience, the ability to sort of perform under pressure, which as a kid is difficult. But if you can learn those skills early when you get to adult life, that's. That's really important.

I think we. You see so much in education now this, the word anxiety. And yes, lots of people do suffer with it, but there's a lot of about.

I'm anxious about exams and I'm, you know. And you're like, it's exam nerves. It's completely normal. It's absolutely normal.

I think if you play sport, you understand what those nerves are and you understand that before a fixture or a big game, you're nervous, or even before a trial. You know, I remember I used to get these pains in my hand just every time I was nervous. But you get used to that.

And actually, I think then when you go in for an exam at school or you're going for an interview for something that you really want, it shows you that that's normal. And actually that's. That's a good thing that you should be channeling because it shows you that you want.

You have that desire to want that job or, you know, to do well in that exam. And I think it. It does teach children a lot of resilience.

Yeah, no, I agree. And it's crucial for life, isn't it?

Absolutely.

Especially in the world we live in now.

Absolutely.

So let's explore the project that we've got here in Worcestershire. So, WCG sport, what's that all about for the listeners?

So what we've been developing over the last year is an elite performant pathway for students aged 16 team where they can come to college and they can excel in their sports. So if they were playing at a professional or semi professional standard, we would mimic exactly the same kind of structure.

So they will get a certain amount of coaching, they will be able to play fixtures, they will get strength and conditioning coaches, they will have physio and rehab advice, nutrition advice, psychology, everything that they would get if they work in that semi professional game. What kind of differs from what others are doing, because lots do, the sports academies is that they have to study sport.

And what we've learned is do you know what, you can be really passionate and really good at sport, but you don't want a career in sport. What you want is a trade or you want to do your A levels because you want to go on to do medicine or whatever it might be.

So at wcg, what we're doing is that you can access any of our curriculum areas while still being able to play the sport of your choice to an elite standard.

Wow. I wish I'd had this opportunity myself when I was younger.

All the coaches that are coming through, they're saying exactly the same. So at Worcestershire, what we'll be launching is we're doing obviously at Warwickshire and we're doing it Worcestershire.

Worcestershire will be doing tennis, I'm linked to Pershaw Tennis Club and we will be doing football and we have partnerships with Worcester City and also Pershaw Town. And the college sort of understands that actually we need to look at our curriculum offer.

So they're investing quite heavily in Pershaw as a campus where that we've got a big construction academy also starting so that they want that to be elite because again, not everybody's vision is to go to university or to go straight out to employment. It's to actually, you know, get a trade or to get an apprenticeship or to do, you know, various things. So we at WCG are quite passionate.

The fact that we look at the individual and we make sure that we have a pathway that is suitable to that individual.

Yeah, I think that's a really important point because most kids, if I'm honest with you, whatever sport they take up, are not going to be good enough to be a pro at that sport.

No, agree.

And if you take football, you know, how many actually get through the system and go on to. I mean, it's absolutely numbers.

Yeah.

And they would be doing that, you know, I know my nephew's been part of big football academies and it starts at 11, 12 and they will be watching them and nurturing for them from that age.

So, you know, we're looking at a certain level, but, you know, if you mimic what universities have been doing for years, you go to university, you can play to quite a decent standard and we want to, we want to offer that. It's also really, by offering the academy to the sports students, what it's going to do is allow us to develop facilities.

So we're developing really nice strength and conditioning gyms at both our centers and that's going to be open to staff and students which as we know is going to help mental well being, you know, work pressures for students and staff. So it's, it's going to benefit all students, not just sports students.

So yeah, that was my next question in terms of the deeper vision behind this initiative, you know, what kind of impact you hope it will have on not just the students but the sport in the local area. Because it's bound to have a ripple effect into the local area or even maybe beyond that.

You know, I presume we're going to pull in students from wherever they want to come from. It's not just for people living locally.

No, no.

We've got brand new accommodation at Pershaw so students can come from across the country, stay from 16 and we have under 18 halls of residence and we have over 18. So obviously they're wardened and you're right, students can come and actually stay and be residential with us.

What we hope it's going to do to the local area is we want to develop our facilities and what we have and the reason that we've chosen the sites that we've chosen is our Morton Morral one, which is Warwickshire and our Pershall one. They're our land based colleges. We have an awful lot of land right now.

Most colleges might have, you know, their city campuses and what they don't have is land. And we've got an awful lot of land ripe and ready for us to extend and build and develop further.

And as we do that we want to work with the local clubs like Pershall Tennis Club for example and the football clubs we're working with so that actually it benefits the local community. So already this year this initiative hasn't started.

We have Pershall Town playing their weekly fixtures for their under 16s on our site, which they're doing, which is really nice because it obviously provides them again with facilities for really low cost and that benefits the site because actually the community is actually coming onto site and using it. That's what we want to be happening.

Over at Warwickshire we have Leamington Football Club juniors and they play in the evenings and at weekends we have Warwickshire Hawks Basketball club playing in our sports hall. And again, these are all linked to the academies so that we can see the students coming through.

The plan with that to build, when we get the academy students, is that our academy students, our sports students and other curriculum areas will be able to do work, work experience within these clubs. So it might be within the business or the media side of things, or, you know, being referees or officials at the games, all of that.

So it will kind of be a whole learning environment once you're on site.

Yeah, I love that.

In terms of, you know, my focus, obviously, is leadership development, but that all of that you're explaining there is going to help people, if they want to go and have some kind of leadership role at some stage in the future, that experience is going to be invaluable, isn't it?

Yeah.

Collaborating with other people, trying lots of.

Different tasks and jobs, something we've been doing for a while now. We work with Warwickshire Hawks and we run a basketball competition.

And to watch our students lead the primary school students during these tournaments and to watch the skills that they've actually developed over the two years actually in practice is really, really lovely. And also, we start to.

We're working, actually, Pershaw as well, where we bring the primary schools in and actually our sports students who are doing the curriculum, actually lead curriculum, PE lessons.

And again, they're developing those leadership skills because they've got to control, like, behavior management, classroom management, which can be really challenging, which is really good.

And again, our Sports Academy students, we want to sort of offer things like holiday camps, which, again, will benefit the local community and working parents.

So you mentioned the gap in sports education and you're offering something that maybe a university wouldn't offer. Is there any other. The sort of gaps that you're trying to fill in the marketplace?

Yeah, well, a really big focus at the moment, you know, with Ofsted and the way that schools and colleges are being looked at is employer engagement. And it's. They kind of.

The government are recognizing the fact that, you know, we teach a curriculum from a specification that's been designed by an exam body. That's absolutely great. And everybody teaches it exactly the same, whether you're at college here or in Scotland.

But actually, what are the skills and the qualities that those students are developing now? It used to be very kind of, you know, we go back about five, six years ago, it was about, you know, communication skills. And are they doing this now?

It's much more honed into what is missing in the actual specific employment sector. So if I go to sports.

Something that's been said for years is, you know, we're getting these really, well, you know, qualified students that are coming out with really high grades equivalent to three A levels. But they haven't actually got the industry specific qualifications like first aid or a coaching qualification.

And actually the companies haven't got the money to then put them through all these qualifications because there's such a high turnaround. So it's about offering those kind of bolt on courses that we can do. We also want to like improve adult education for example, at the college.

So we want to make sure that our academies or whatever we're working with Pershall Tennis Club for example, to be running some adult courses like first aid or pediatric first aid, whatever they might need to actually. So we're benefiting the local area.

So I think we need to make sure that we're working with employers to make sure that the students that are coming, whether they're going to university or they're going straight out to employment, have actually got the skill base. So can they send an email? Do they know how to do that?

Do they know how to pick up a phone professionally and speak to an adult or have a difficult conversation with somebody?

That's a good one.

Yeah, exactly. In a professional way.

And it's those kind of skills that we need to make sure that are being embedded into the curriculum and that's what we're trying to do.

So there's two things there that spring to mind for me. You mentioned about the coaching skills.

So a few weeks ago Rich and I on this podcast talked about managers coach skills because it's a skill set that most leaders, if they haven't currently got it, need to develop. The old days of autocratic leadership are long gone. Even though a lot of people still use it. Well, they still, it's still used a lot.

But actually that's not going to engage the people coming into the workplace in the future. So developing your coaching skills is really important because you can apply this in so many different scenarios.

Coaching skills and sales skills for example, are not that dissimilar. So you know, if you as a student you learn how to coach people, potentially that could prepare you for a role in sales in the future. You just don't.

Absolutely.

The other thing for me, and probably the most important one that you were alluding to there is emotional intelligence.

Because the one thing that you really need in the leaders of the future is that ability to be self aware and self managed and be socially aware and build relationships and if we can develop those skills, which in the sort of things that you're trying to do will develop those skills, that's going to really prepare people for adult life.

Yeah. I mean, it sort of touches on something you said earlier on when you're. What skills did you learn growing up?

And I alluded to the fact that, you know, when you play in a team, you've got lots of different characters there.

Yeah.

Now you might be somebody who gets really passionate, so you shout quite a lot, but actually that might then have a really bad effect on a number of people in your team. So what we're trying to teach them or show them is actually the impact of your behaviour and what that can have on lots of other people.

I think one of the things that's been really lovely for me going through this process is some of the people that have applied.

So our head of basketball and our head strength and conditioning coach were actually students that were once WCG students, sports students, and they've gone away to university, they've got their degrees, they've got their qualification, they've been out in industry working, you know, and they didn't get it because they were an ex student of ours. They got it because they had the skills that we're looking for and the qualities.

But actually when you watch them with the students, you can see that the students are like, well, they did our qualification and look what they've managed to achieve. You know, they've got a master's or they've got a teaching qualification or they worked out.

You know, we've got one at the moment that's in LA and he's coaching out there and that, that's just really inspirational to the students and also to see how far they've come.

Because when we explain what they were like as students, you know, they were quiet, they were self assured, some of them, you know, they weren't that confident.

And actually now you would never think that if you met them, they've really, really like grown all those skills, which is why they're doing really well in employment.

I think that's a really good point again about role models, isn't it? Because, you know, I'm a lot older now than most of the young lads that play tennis for our teams.

So whilst we will nurture them, we will take them on court and help them learn the tactical side of the mental side of tennis, the real role models they're going to look up to are the kids that have come through that and are like, 18, 19, 20, 21. Because they're much closer now.

Absolutely.

And those role models are absolutely crucial.

And you're absolutely right. And that's something that.

So at the moment, you know, when you look at it, and I said that you can only study sport if you're going to do a sports academy. It's a really narrow field once you open it up.

Actually, what we're going to get is students from all different careers, curriculum areas, working together. And they might have very different personalities, but actually they can learn from each other.

So you might have somebody who's really good at a trade, somebody who's really academic. Actually, what can they learn from each other? Because those skills and, you know, qualities they will be able to share.

But also what we hope is that we will have first, second and third year students because they go up to 19 that will be playing and actually we want people to be aspiring to. Oh, I want to be like that second year because I want to be that, you know, I want to be the captain.

Yeah.

And he's really helped me.

And you know, and actually they start to mentor each other because I think that mentorship as well is a really big skill and quality that they can learn early on, which then hopefully when they become a leader in the future, that's when they get that coaching and they can actually understand about helping others.

Because actually, even now, when I look at, you know, staff that I manage and stuff, mentoring and supporting other colleagues doesn't come naturally to everybody.

No, it doesn't, no. But it's really a vital role, I think.

Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

And trusting people. I have on occasion, I've done it recently when I'm not playing in a match and I've got actually a team of maybe juniors playing the oldest one.

I'll ask them, a 16 year old, maybe 17 year old, you're captain for the day.

Yeah, yeah, you go to that, you pick the pairings, you lead on the club's behalf and they do, and they do it really highly, effectively and that is, you know, invaluable for them for the future.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's how you channel that down.

I think we've got a very new focus at WCG since we've got our new senior executive team and they are building that trust and they are very much kind of like, you know, these are your areas of specialism now you go, we trust you to go and do your job.

And actually then that's trickling down from the leaders all the way down and actually almost into the students because the lecturers and that they're just leading the students.

And we are seeing some really, like, lovely support from some higher years, or we have our sports students and other students who actually go in and work with our supported learning departments and stuff. So they actually learn to work with people, you know, from all different kinds that they might not have access to.

And actually that gives the students so much confidence.

Yeah, no, absolutely. That's really important.

When you're doing something, when you're leading peers, it's often quite difficult, but actually when they're doing it and they're watching that they can communicate with students and they're the head teacher for that school is congratulating how well they're doing. It's really lovely to see.

Yeah, brilliant.

So if I'm a student listening to this podcast, or if I'm the parent of a potential student listening to this podcast, I'm thinking, well, what Becky's saying sounds great. I'm really interested in this. Why should they be excited? What opportunities does this open up for that student or for the parents of that student?

Well, I think, if we're being honest, the students look at it one way and that's we get to do sport and I get to come and play football or tennis all the time. This is amazing. This is incredible. And all the strength and conditioning group coach is going to make me really beefy.

Yeah.

But from the parents perspective, it's okay. Are they going to get a qualification? And, you know, the achievement rates and the curriculum standards that are delivered at WCG are really high.

Right.

You know, whether you're doing construction, A levels, media, whatever it might be, we have industry specialists delivering those. And, you know, our achievement rates speak for themselves. Got great Ofsted reports. And, you know, not just that.

I think if you listen to the employment feedback with some of the big companies that we work with, some of the big construction ones like Taylor Wimpy and stuff like that, and our students going out to apprenticeships, I think from a parent's point of view, that's what's really helpful.

The other thing that I would say with the academies is that, you know, we're very focused on it being the students have got to high achieve, but what comes first is their curriculum area. So this is going to please the parents.

So they have to turn up, they have to stay on track with their and they have to behave within their curriculum areas. And if they don't, they will not.

The first thing that will go is the sports academies and then whether they've got a cup match and they're the captain that will go. And actually it's not often that you have a carrot that you can use to say, well, you need to stay on track.

And actually when I look at the students that have been part of our football academy, which we've been running for a while, their, their attainment and you know, progress is exceptional.

Yeah, that sounds great. And what you alluded to this, you know, it's not just for elite athletes.

So the sort of students you're looking for, they might be really good at sport already, but could they be interested in sport? But maybe not that good at the moment? I mean, what sort of students are you looking?

Yeah, I think. Well, I mean at the moment we, we will take everybody on, on individual merit and we will look at it.

I think, you know, in future, future years, obviously when this is built, there'll be, you know, we'll do full on trials and everything else like that. And they need to develop a certain standard.

But like I say, you quite often get students that come through and you might look at somebody and think, God, you're an actual athlete. But he's never played basketball, he just hasn't had that opportunity.

But you put a ball in his hand and suddenly you're like, oh my goodness, he could be absolutely incredible. Or you know, similar with somebody with rugby. And we want to give them the opportunity.

So, you know, we will look at people individually sometimes you, you know, you'll have the other, the other way, where they've been given loads of opportunities and they think they're a lot better than they are. So again, it's nice because again, they come into this sort of like people that are playing the same, if not higher levels.

And what it's going to teach them, which is exactly what happens in life, is that actually they've got to keep trying really hard to keep their place in that team. And if they're not good enough, you know, they will be benched if there's somebody better.

Well, exactly, because if you don't work hard enough, somebody else will.

Somebody will. Exactly.

So it will teach them that they need to be making those improvements all the time, that you're just, you know, going to coast and be offered that place.

Like I say, if you're not stick keeping up with your curriculum work and also, you know, you're not working with the strength and conditioning coach who's going to work with you individually to get better at your position in your sport, then there's no point you being part of the academies really.

So what will A week in the life of a student at the academy look like just broadly speaking.

So broadly, actually, the model will be the same on all six sites. So we've got six campuses. What they will do is we all students will have an academy training slot on a Monday afternoon. They will have fixtures.

If they don't have fixtures, they'll have training on a Wednesday and then they will also have training on a Friday morning. So they will be the academy training slots. And then on top of that, we'll have the strength and conditioning coach that will be working with them.

So they will be able to book in and have rehab sessions if they need it. If they're injured, hopefully they won't be.

But also, you know, the strength and conditioning, he'll write them a program so they can use the gym and then he can review it and work with them on an individual basis to make them better. And then they will do their academic subjects around that.

So if they need to do maths and English, they can do their GCSEs, which will be part of their timetable.

They will also get personal tutorial slots, they will get academic tutorial slots so that we can work with them, you know, for things like cv, writing, how to work in an interview. So the college day will finish around 4:30 for every student.

Because the idea is that the academy and the curriculum ties will be within college time.

So if you've got somebody who is already playing at quite a high level for another team, for example, we will continue to support them in playing for that team or we will make introductions to a higher level team if we feel that they can progress. And that's the idea. So, for example, if they're already playing for Pershall Tennis Club, we will support.

Nothing that we do will eat into them being able to play for the men's team, for example, in their fixtures.

Yeah, brilliant. Sounds like a fantastic opportunity for the right people, doesn't it?

Yeah, it will be.

And then in the future, you know, obviously at Worcestershire, we're starting with tennis and we're starting with football, but we want to open it up further in the future, where we will do rugby, we will do netball and obviously we're doing basketball, we're doing esports as well on our other sites.

So if, because you talked about, you want to connect with the wider community and that's a focus for the tennis club as well, I think it's really important that sports clubs and and further education establishments do engage with their communities on a much deeper level. What opportunities does that Develop for the students. For example, will they be working with local coaches, clubs, businesses?

Is that something you'll encourage?

100%. Yeah. So we want them to be going out and working with the local clubs. And again, this is not just in sports.

So it could be at a basic level that they're coaching younger teams. It could be that they're officiating at the weekend, running the lines, whatever it might be.

But also for some of the other students that aren't necessarily interested in the sports side of things.

Yeah, that they actually are going in there and they're working with them on their media or, you know, their social media presence, because the students are so good at that compared to lots of people.

So it might be that actually they're working on, you know, how to video or film certain things so that they're, that, you know, they're attracting more people. It could be that they're working with them within their business team so that they're actually looking at how it's running.

You know, we want to really try and hit as many different fields as we possibly can. I mean, similarly at the moment when we're, we're building our facilities and we want to link with the local community with this.

If you're a club, let's say tennis and you want to paint your changing rooms, we're going to have a construction unit with painters and decorators that should go in and do that. Now our students, we don't want to give them a make believe, you know, process where they can do it in a, in a, in a warehouse.

We want to give them actual, real, real life experience. So again, we want to work with the, with the local clubs where we can benefit with things like that.

I think that would be very beneficial.

Yeah, I know.

So you said that you're going to launch the Sports Academy September this year.

Yeah.

What does success in that first year of launch look like to you?

So for us, we want to have teams at Worcestershire in tennis and football. We would like teams on our Warwickshire site in football, rugby, basketball and esports.

We want them to be entering into the highest league that we possibly can. You know, with football, probably we will fill two teams and then we want them to be successful students, want them to pass their qualification.

We want them to be able to progress to the next level.

So that could be a completely different curriculum area or it could be a higher level, of course, because we offer from level one right through to he. So we are a university centre.

Okay.

So we would in the future like to develop that at the Moment it's under 19s but we can also enter leagues where we can actually start competing at HE as well. So we've got full progression for students. We're engaging, we want to engage with more clubs.

So we're starting, you know, small, but we want to engage with further clubs. We want to build and offer different sports as well. So, I mean, early days, but rugby will definitely be coming to Pershall.

I'm also working with a hockey club about working from our rugby college. So it's about building sports but obviously again it's about doing things that are a little bit different. So at the tennis centre.

Yeah, pickleball and paddle.

Yes, absolutely.

Is a big one.

So which we need to mention so they obviously as a club it'd be really, really beneficial with your new courts and hopefully some facility development that's going to happen that you offer teams in those and not many colleges offer those sports and we already know that in Europe they're two huge sports.

So actually if we can be one of the leading colleges alongside Pershall Tennis Club in building something like that for the students and the local community working together to do that, that would be absolutely brilliant.

So it sounds to me like this is the beginning of something much, much bigger. And your plans for the next three to five years are quite grand.

I hope so.

I kind of, I don't want to fast forward that much because then I'll be actually quite old, but I kind of want to see where it is in 10 years and it's really exciting. And I think what's really lovely for me is I am obviously passionate about sport. That's why I've been doing what I've been doing for ages.

But I think for me to have leaders above myself that are also really passionate in what it can do to students and what it can add and how it can enrich their time while they're at college is really, really lovely to see. And I think WCG is going to really benefit from the leaders that we have.

Yeah, brilliant. So sort of closing call to action then, really.

So if there's students, parents or even coaches out there listening to this, what's the next steps if find out more, if they want to get involved with what you're doing.

Yep. So if you want to find out more, you want to find, you know, just have further details, you want a conversation because you're.

You've got a sport or a club that wants to be involved or a child. On our website, via our website, you can go onto WCG Sport.

And it's got all the information page and on there you can find email and emails and further details of who you can contact.

Brilliant. So closing thought from you. What's the best thing that a 16 to 19 year old can get by being part of a sports academy?

I think access to different people and if they get more access to different people, then they actually develop so many different skills and qualities. So that it might be just understanding why people do things differently. It might be.

I just think communication is such a big one and massively it's confidence. So, yes, you don't want somebody who's really cocky, but actually being confident about what you're good at, that is a really, really good skill.

And I'm hoping that what we can achieve is some very well rounded, confident individuals that can go and succeed in whatever future path they want to.

Sounds brilliant.

Because we know at the moment, obviously for a lot of young people there is a lot of anxiety, there is a lot of mental health challenges for people and an initiative like this would help them develop skills.

They need to go beyond that, that absolutely develop into an adult and be really highly effective in whatever they decide to do with the rest of their lives.

Yeah, I think I've seen in education really, over the last five years, I've seen so many students suffering with mental health much more than I have done in, in earlier on in my career. And I think sport, whether you're part of the academies or not, sport and being physically active in some way.

So it might be just going to the gym and going on the cross trainer for half an hour, anything to actually, you know, raise those endorphins can actually really, really help and take them away from a situation where they might feel overwhelmed and stuff.

So if we can give all of our students, whether they're sports academy students or not, understand that resilience of different methods that they can use to calm themselves down, then I think that'd be really beneficial as well.

Brilliant. Becky, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

It's been fantastic to talk to you about the plans here. Obviously, I'm slightly vested interest in that.

I belong to the tennis club that is on your site, but I fundamentally believe that sport can help young people develop the leadership skills they need to go out into business and the wider world and really be effective.

Yeah, I agree.

I look forward to seeing how it all progresses.

Thank you.

Thanks very much.

Thanks.