Wolves sign first Gladiator!

WARRINGTON Wolves scholarship have signed their first player from Chester Gladiators.
Jake Carter, who lives on the Wirral, is the first junior player from the Gladiators to be signed onto thehighly regarded scholarship scheme.
Jake has played Rugby League for the past two seasons in the recently formed Chester Gladiators club based at Chester RUFC.
He initially impressed when attending Warrington and Cheshire Service Area development days. Following these sessions he was selected to attend the RFLs regional development programme. Jake is well thought of by his Chester Coach Allen Jones, who is now also involved in the Service Area development programmes, coaching the U13s.
The Chester Gladiators club was formed in spring 2008 by a group of Rugby League enthusiasts living in Chester and in less than four years it has grown from one open age team to four junior teams and two open age sides with further plans to expand.
Since the junior section has been running, three players have progressed to the Service Area development squads: Jake Carter (U16), Lewis Tucker (U14) and Tom Woods (U13).
“Jake is an enthusiastic, athletic young man who is always keen to learn and displays excellent leadership skills,” commented his club coach Allen. “Jake joined the Gladiators in April 2010 and scored a try and six conversions in his first ever game of Rugby League in June. Since then he has gone from strength to strength.”
Ben Lazenby, Warrington Wolves player performance manager, has been impressed by the progress the Chester outfit has made. “It is fantastic to see a non-traditional area making steps forwards in our game and it’s a great credit to the parents and volunteers involved with the Chester Gladiators. I am sure that Jake won’t be the first player to progress from this club and I am sure that all at the club are proud of his success, along with the other two players involved in the Service Area programme.
“In addition a mention must go to his coach Allen Jones who has been incredibly enthusiastic about Rugby League and is himself progressing as a coach along the pathway, currently coaching within the Service Area player development camps, without good people like Allen we don’t see players like Jake emerging”.
The Warrington Wolves Scholarship, who are sponsored by Warrington Collegiate, have been working very closely with the Warrington and Cheshire Service Area and are seeing many of the Service Area players progress onto the scholarship. Ben added: “Not only have we seen Jake get identified through the Service Area development camps, we have seen other players progress from Service Area and the RFL’s regional development centres onto our scholarship, these players include Ed Chamberlain (U15), Josh Wall and Oliver Hogan (both U16).”
The success of Jake Carter as well as the ongoing expansion and success of the Chester Gladiators is largely down to enthusiastic and good people along with the support and guidance of the Warrington and Cheshire Service Area Coordinator, Alan Kilshaw.
Picture: Jake Carter (left) with Lee Westwood from the Wolves Scholarship