January Community Club Ambassadors
Across January, Wigan Warriors Community Foundation have linked up with our Community Club Ambassadors across Wigan and Cumbria.
The Community Foundation have been hard at work throughout January, delivering sessions far and wide with our Community Club Ambassadors. We travelled to Egremont RLFC in Cumbria before the Whitehaven v Wigan pre-season friendly, for our Ambassadors event hosted by Kris Radlinski alongside Matt Peet, Sean O’Loughlin and Tommy Leuluai – the day saw a range of Clubs from the Cumbria region in attendance share reflections on the 2022 season, pre-season plans and the 2023 season ahead.
The event also gave an opportunity for Sean O’Loughlin and Tommy Leuluai share their experiences of transitioning from players to coaches, as well as some invaluable experience to the Community coaches in attendance.
Other activities in January included a Community engagement session in Barrow prior to the Barrow v Wigan pre-season friendly, where we interacted with children from the Barrow area, teaching them core skills and taking along mascot Max and the Challenge Cup.
Shevington Sharks have been down to Robin Park Arena for some wrestle sessions at our high performance training base whilst Sam Powell also visited Wigan St Jude’s for a rugby session.
Gary Elliot of Egremont RLFC commented: “I would like to thank all involved at Wigan Warriors who made the Ambassadors event at Egremont Rangers ARLFC last Sunday (22nd January) such a huge success. You could see from the jersey’s in the room that the local Community coaches had travelled some good distances to be there (with 2/3 from South of the county).
“Everyone I spoke to had thoroughly enjoyed the talk. A lot said it had left them with a real positive outlook on the sport and spoke about how they were looking forward to implementing some of the ideas and standards at their own local Clubs. It was good to see PE teachers from two of our local high schools in attendance, who each have lots of talented young players in their care.”
He added: “From a personal point of view, the Egremont Rangers youth players and coaching staff who attended the session all said they had taken a lot from listening to the guys. The overwhelming feedback was how humble some of the biggest names in our game are. It was so refreshing to see these stars of Rugby League stay back for around an hour after the event had finished, chatting with our Community coaches about their own experiences and giving advice on how to deal with certain players and situations.”
Assistant Head of Community, Danny Fullerton said: “Wigan Warriors Community Foundation Community Club Ambassadors programme 2023 started on the road in Cumbria at Egremont RLFC, and it was fantastic to see so many coaches attend from across Cumbria which highlights how strong the Community game is in the region. These coaches meetings are designed for coaches to learn new coaching practices and insight into Wigan Warriors 2023 season preparations shared by the first team staff.
“Prior to the Barrow v Wigan game, Community Foundation coaches delivered a fun session to local Barrow juniors from Hindpool Tigers. With a variety of age groups joining in the session it was great to see them all enjoying the training and having the opportunity to have a picture with the challenge cup.”
He added: “Locally the Foundation has started to deliver the popular ambassador sessions with Community clubs at Robin Park Arena. Shevington Sharks and St Jude’s u13s have both benefited from the recent sessions with Community Foundation coaches and Sam Powell also shared his knowledge and experience which will help the juniors prepare for return of the community game season.”
Wigan Warriors Community Foundation would like to offer their support to all community clubs and welcome them to attend any of the ambassador sessions during 2023.
This year will again see more engagement with Community clubs that would like to attend Robin Park and experience training at the Wigan Warriors training facility. Alongside the practical sessions available to all juniors there will be regular coach professional development opportunities throughout the year from a variety of Wigan Warriors coaches.
If your team would like the opportunity to train at Robin Park and have a unique Warriors experience, please contact community@wiganwarriors.com for more details and availability.
