A specialist sixth form academy for 16 to 19-year-olds with dreams of hitting the sporting heights is being created as part of ambitious plans to bring the renowned Newton Rigg College site near Penrith back into play.
It is envisaged that the newly-launched Cumbria Institute of Sport will create a pathway for school leavers to play or work at the highest level of their chosen game.
School leavers involved in a host of sports — including football, rugby union and league, golf, tennis, swimming and netball — will be offered the chance to play and learn during two-year courses which will kick off in September.
Newton Rigg’s new owners are revamping facilities, classrooms and equipment at the site to create a specialist sporting hub which will be open to teenagers from across Cumbria.
As part of their weekly timetables, students will receive professional coaching, bespoke strength and conditioning programmes to boost their physical and mental performance, and study for either a BTEC level three in sport or an Active IQ qualification.
Partnerships will also be forged with nearby sporting institutions and there will be regular fixtures against other leading clubs and academies in the region.
“There’s nothing like it in Cumbria for what we’re going to offer,” said Darren Edmondson, 50, who will run the institute in partnership with Lewis Pendleton, of Millom, a former international judo competitor.
Mr Edmondson is a former professional footballer and familiar face across Cumbria having played for Carlisle United, and managed both Workington and Barrow. He and Pendleton currently run the Park View Academy of Sport, based in Chester-le-Street.
Mr Edmondson, a father-of-four who lives in the Keswick area, said: “Our project is to recruit as many of the not-been-noticed or not-been-found or not-quite-there at 16, bring them for two years, enhance their ability on the field or court — whatever sport it might be — alongside the cognitive and educational learning and the general persona of themselves, and try and make them realise their potential; how to unearth and bring that out of themselves by dedication and professional living, coming into a professional work place environment every day.
“These are school leavers, they’re not kids any more. They’re about to become adults, so we’re going to treat them like adults and make sure that they get pushed to the limit.
“If they don’t quite make it (as a professional player), whatever they do at 18 — education, jobs in sport — they’ll be better people for coming to the academy because we’re going to have professional people running it who know what it’s about.”
Newton Rigg was the “perfect site”, said Mr Edmondson, at which to give teenagers a sporting launchpad.
“They can live a dream first. If that doesn’t work with regards to their sport, they’ll get a qualification that will get them into university or set them up for working in the environment or further afield out of Cumbria into jobs in sport elsewhere,” he said.
“Parents have also got to buy into this and see the opportunity is educational as well as sport-driven. I don’t want somebody who wants to just come and play sport every day. I want somebody who’s driven to be the best that they can be that’s in the classroom and on a field or court, so that they’re giving themselves a chance.
“The individual talents are there — they just haven’t got a platform.”
Recruitment for the first intake in September is currently under way. A website is going live and there will be training days and parents’ evenings in the coming months.
“I’m really excited by the project and I hope that the young adults can buy into it and give themselves a chance,” said Edmondson, who looked forward to seeing the relaunch of Newton Rigg.
“Hopefully as we all start to grow, the parties will come together, and in the not too distant future we’ll have Newton Rigg back to the bustling success that we know it was but other people chose to say it wasn’t. It was wrong what happened to the college and a lot have suffered. People know in Cumbria what Newton Rigg is, and what it could be.”
Praising new Newton Rigg site owners Omega Proteins and AW Jenkinson for their support, Mr Edmondson said: “It wouldn’t have happened without them. I can’t thank them enough for their input.”
