YOUNG sports men and women were honoured for their achievements and asked to show class in defeat during an awards ceremony at Priestley College, Warrington.
Priestley Principal Matthew Grant echoed the sentiments of Rudyard Kipling in an inspiring speech at the college’s annual Sports Awards.
“Sport is something that helps you build personal resilience because there are always winners and losers,” he said.
“The best winners are those who also know how to lose gracefully.”
Every year the world’s greatest tennis players see the words from Kipling’s poem ‘If’ when they walk out onto Wimbledon’s Centre Court. It reads: “If you can meet with triumph and disaster / And treat those two imposters just the same.”
During his speech Matthew thanked the young sportsmen and sportswomen for their efforts on pitches, pools, courts, tracks and fields in the UK and abroad.
“You represent the excellence that is within Priestley,” he said. “Thank you for representing us as a college in Warrington, the county, nationally and internationally so well.”
During the awards ceremony honours were handed out to students competing in sports as varied as golf, taekwondo, basketball and swimming.
Priestley’s Sports Personalities of the Year were swimmer and former Great Sankey High pupil Aaron Hill along with footballer Abbey Hickey, who previously studied at St Chad’s Catholic and CofE High School in Runcorn.
It was the swimmers who were named Priestley’s Team of the Year after they represented half the North West team in the AoC National Finals in Newcastle and brought home gold medals.
Another successful Priestley team was its rugby league players who won the North West 1 League.
“They were an extremely cohesive team, which led to some great results on the pitch,” said Sports Tutor Paul Hopper.
As well as the team successes Priestley honoured Emily Grundy who was named Community Coach of the Year.
She has refereed at festivals, attended courses adding to her experience and qualifications as well as volunteered at college.
Head of Sport Nigel Howells congratulated all the sports stars during the presentation and also reminded them of their reason for being at college.
“It was important to recognise the students for their sporting achievements, but also their considerable academic achievements,” he said.
Pictured: Priestley College’s Sports Personalities of the Year Abbey Hickey and Aaron Hill.
