Badminton boom time for East Staffs
The East Staffordshire Badminton Development Group (ESBDG) have been successful
in their application to become a BADMINTON England Performance Centre.
The ESBDG will receive £30,000 over 3 years to set up the centre
and help with player development with the aim of producing world class
players.
East Staffs Badminton Development
Group (ESBDG) is celebrating after gaining privileged status within the
sport in this country.
East Staffs has been named
as one of the first ten accredited Performance Centres in the country
by BADMINTON England, which means a windfall of £10,000 per year
until 2011 to help with talent identification and development of players,
on and off court, ultimately aiming to produce more players, like Tracy
Hallam, capable of medal success.
The group, which is spearheaded
by Alan Rogers of Barton Badminton Club have worked tirelessly over the
last ten months to get the application up to the highest possible standard.
This is an excellent achievement considering the high standards that have
been set by BADMINTON England and that East Staffs is one of the first
10 performance centres nationally with a target of 50 in total.
Liam Rooney of East Staffs
Borough Council Sports Development Team was delighted with the news. “This
is brilliant news for badminton in Burton, Uttoxeter and the whole of
East Staffordshire. The award of Performance Centre status is a tremendous
boost for the young players and coaches from Barton and Uttoxeter Premier
Badminton Clubs which will create additional coaching opportunities for
existing juniors from not just the established clubs but from the wider
area and I look forward to us developing local stars of the future who
can challenge for medals on the world stage.”
A series of talent identification
and coaching sessions will be jointly programmed to enable players from
across all of East Staffordshire to be assessed. Players will join the
Player Pathway with an annual coaching programme designed to meet the
needs of the player at each stage of their development including links
to County Squads and High Performance Centres.
The centre will officially
open in September and further details will be provided soon. As well as
the Performance Centre Coaching sessions there will also be a Junior and
Senior Club at the Paulet High School which along with the other clubs
in the area will welcome new players.
Anyone interested in the
Performance Centre Sessions or the club should email Cheryl Whittingham,
Secretary of ESBDG - cheekychez83@hotmail.com
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