‘Team Leicestershire’ launched

New umbrella association offers all young people a high quality school sport competition programme.

Team Leicestershire is a new voluntary umbrella association which brings together all secondary schools across Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rutland and 8 of our voluntary School Sport Associations, to offer all young people a high quality school sport competition programme.

It aims to give every young person who wants it, the opportunity to participate, compete and represent their school with pride, in high quality and appropriate competitive school sport, regardless of their ability or what school they attend.

It also aims to re-ignite, support and profile our County Representative Sides, so that our most talented young people have the opportunity to represent their County with pride on a regional and national stage.

Team Leicestershire has developed a new bespoke online 'School Fixtures' website, which can be accessed by all schools and where school staff can easily manage all fixtures and results throughout the academic year. The website can also be accessed by pupils and parents to view fixtures and results and the progression of their school teams to from local leagues to County Finals.

Team Leicestershire is delighted to be supported by our professional sports clubs – Leicester City Football Club, Leicester Tigers, Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Leicester Riders, Leicester Hockey Club, Loughborough Lightning Netball and Loughborough Badminton and by several Sporting Ambassadors – Martin Johnson, Paul Nixon, Drew Sullivan, Anthony Clarke and Stephanie Tirrell.

Team Leicestershire is also delighted to receive the support of the David Ross Foundation in the inaugural year.

To date, 6 Table Tennis Competitions Finals have taken place, in which the winning teams will now go on to represent Leicestershire at the Regional Table Tennis Finals.

• Year 7/8 Boys – Manor High School
• Year 9/10/11 Boys – English Martyrs School
• Post 16 Boys – Ashby School
• Under 13 Girls – Our Lady's Convent School
• Under 16 Girls – Manor High School

Team Leicestershire was officially launched during the Leicester Mercury Sports Awards, on Thursday 14^th January 2016, which was attended by the local professional sports clubs, a whole host of local sports stars and local businesses from across Leicestershire. Young local sport stars posed in the new Team Leicestershire County Representative kit and Geoff Maltby, Sports Development Manager at Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport, outlined the Team Leicestershire vision for the future of competitive school sport.

David Ross, Chairman of The David Ross Foundation said, "The David Ross Foundation is delighted to support Team Leicestershire as sponsor this year. Being part of a sporting team shows young people the values of respecting others, working hard, and showing commitment and dedication. These are traits which bring out the best in people for life. We wish Team Leicestershire every success".

Geoff Maltby, Sports Development Manager at Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport (LRS) said, "It was fantastic to officially launch Team Leicestershire at such a high profile local sporting event. Hopefully attendees were impressed with what we're trying to achieve and will support us moving forward so that we continue to ensure the future success of Leicestershire sport".

Team Leicestershire is already looking for future sponsors for the 2016/17 academic year and beyond. If you are interesting in becoming a 'Headline Sponsor', 'District Area Sponsor' or a 'Sport Specific Sponsor', then please do not hesitate to contact Geoff Maltby, Sports Development Manager, Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport – g.maltby@lrsport.org / 01509 564862.