Congratulations to CLV student Ellie Roberts who has become the Northumberland Badminton Association’s Unsung Hero of Sport . Ellie plays at the Newcastle Performance Centre and Northumberland County Junior and Senior Teams based at Benfield and now the Tyneside Badminton Centre for almost 11 years, she has also played at Newcastle Medicals Badminton Club for 5 years.
At just seventeen she has represented all of Northumberland’s age group teams over the years, is a Junior Welsh International for the U17 age group and, in 2015, won the award for the most promising junior girl. She has subsequently gained her Level 1 coaching award and is working towards Level 2.
Over the last couple of years they have seen her mature into a lovely responsible young woman and, amongst other things, this has manifested itself in her involvement with the county’s younger players. The successful “Futures” group that was started last season, with initial financial support from Sport Newcastle, has benefitted from her assistance, as she has willingly made herself available to help County Coach, Rob Wetherell, at the Friday evening sessions, and sometimes on Sunday afternoons too for the last year and a half. This is on a voluntary, unpaid basis. I
In addition to this, she helps to run junior sessions here, at Cramlington Learning Village, for Year 7 and 8’s. Three weeks ago was Northumberland’s first junior team event of the new season, for under 16s, and Rob suggested that it would be a good development opportunity if they were to ask her to manage the team over the weekend: this would normally be done by a coach or sometimes a parent. She jumped at the chance, did a great job and very quickly gained the respect of the players, several of whom are barely a year younger than she is. She is currently helping develop the U14 County Squad as well. She has been, and will continue to be, a big asset to the County.
Congratulations to Ellie on winning this fantastic award.