Sports Traider Charity Supports Eagles Foundation Schools Programme

19/07/2021

The Eagles Foundation are delighted to announce that Sports Traider Charity are supporting their schools coaching programme. 

Sports Traider Charity is a charity which exists to give young people employment and sports participation opportunities to help them gain confidence, self-esteem, retail skills and improve mental and physical health. 

They do this by managing a professionally run chain of charity sports shops, staff by employees and volunteers with funds raised invested back into sports participation projects.

With very similar aims to The Eagles Foundation, there is a natural fit for a partnership between the two charities and Sports Traider Charity’s support has allowed The Eagles Foundation to deploy Oliver Davies into 10 schools over the course of the summer terms, where he will introduce around 600 young people to Rugby League. 

Schools have been carefully selected from the areas around where the city’s community teams are based to target the creation of a new junior section at Sheffield Forgers and bolstering numbers in specific teams at Sheffield Hawks.

“Sports Traider Charity is proud to be associated with this great project, working alongside The Eagles Foundation and helping to promote Rugby League to a new generation of children of all abilities” said Lance Haggith, Sports Traider Charity Founder. 

“The partnership will evolve and will give Sports Traider Charity a presence in these locations of high deprivation in Sheffield.” 

Westways, Hatfield, Hartley Brook and Meynell had their coaching prior to the Spring half term, with Coit, Beck, Woodthorpe, Intake, Oasis Watermead and Hinde House currently taking part this half term. 

Each school is being given 5 weeks of coaching for two groups of 30 kids, during which they will be introduced to basic skills such as catching, passing, running with the ball and be able to play tag Rugby League by the end of the sessions. 

All schools will be invited to a series of festivals which will take place in September, when Covid restrictions are lifted, with the school staff also having the opportunity to develop their knowledge of Rugby League with some professional development being offered later in the year. 

There will also be opportunities for those schools involved around supporting the Rugby League World Cup which Sheffield is a host city of.

“We are very grateful for the support of Sports Traider Charity and their support provided finance to bring our schools coaching programme back to life,” explained David Butler, Eagles Foundation Trustee. 

“Around 600 young people will be introduced to Rugby League as a result of the partnership and thanks to Sports Traider Charity we can give them a positive experience and hopefully some enjoyable and lasting memories of Rugby League.

“I am sure that with this first joint project, we will demonstrate to Sports Traider Charity that The Eagles Foundation is a professional and trusted delivery partner and look forward to developing the relationship into the future with some of the other exciting projects that we hope to launch which also crossover with Sports Traider Charity’s objectives as well as helping them to expand their operation into South Yorkshire.”

You can find out more about Sports Traider Charity by visiting their website www.sportstraider.com or @SportsTraiderUK on social media. 

Pictured is Lance Haggith, Sports Charity Traider meeting Andrea Dobson, Eagles Foundation Development Officer.