The first-team professionals were on hand to pop in to the college to demonstrate their skills at table tennis, in a bid to encourage more local youngsters to take up an active lifestyle ahead of the summer Olympics in London in 2012.
The visit was part of the club’s Premier League Places for Players initiative.
Stoke City’s Premier League 4 Sport Co-ordinator Dawn Bracegirdle said: “We have been here at Chesterton to help promote the Premier League 4 Sport programme which the club are leading here in North Staffordshire.
“All 20 Premier League Club’s are involved in the scheme, which is funded by the Government and the Premier League up until the Olympics in two years time. We are here today with our table tennis club, but we also run similar things for badminton, volleyball and judo at 15 other sites across the area.”
always there
Premier League 4 Sport aims to help the government’s ambition to provide young children with at least five hours sport per week and also to try and address the drop off in sport participation after pupils leave secondary school.
“It’s great to come to these sort of places and try give the children some encouragement to continue to play sports during and after their time at school,” midfielder Wedderburn added. “It’s brilliant to come here and give something back to them because they are always there for people like myself on a Saturday afternoon giving us their support.”
Bracegirdle went on to say: “One of the most important things that the Premier League Club’s are involved in is to promote the profile of the actual sports that we are involved in. Having the players here just really helps us to do that and I am very thankful to them for coming and giving us their time.”
“It’s great to come to these sort of places and try give the children some encouragement” – Nathaniel Wedderburn
Credits: PremierLeague.com
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