Paralympic coach visits school (From Crewe Guardian)
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Paralympic coach visits school
10:06am Tuesday 5th February 2013 in News
Olympic coach Rick Hoskins, centre, with Stockport Harrier wheelchair athlete Andrew Small, left, and Year 9 English student Mateusz Nowak, right.
KING’S Grove High School pupils in Crewe put an inspirational international sports coach through his paces last week as part of the school’s Olympic legacy initiative - which aims to build on the success of London 2012.
Ex-Team GB Paralympic coach Rick Hoskins, who currently trains Stockport Harriers wheelchair racing team, visited the school to talk about his lifetime’s work promoting disabled sport and share some of his experiences.
Rick, who has coached Paralympic gold medallists David ‘The Weir-wolf’ Weir and Mickey Bushell, led an assembly for Year 7 and 8 pupils to raise awareness of living with disabilities and competing in sport.
The assembly included a demonstration of specific wheelchair racing techniques by Stockport Harrier’s Andrew Small, who attends South Cheshire College and is one of Rick’s next generation athletes.
English and Media Studies students then joined forces to put Hoskins through a press conference, during which he was asked a series of searching questions about how he ventured into coaching, his funniest memories and his greatest moments.
After sharing a host of engaging anecdotes, Rick commented that the conference was, “as professional and probing as a BBC interview.”
King’s Grove’s Head of PE Matthew Maher, who organised the event in conjunction with English teachers Steve Small and James Richardson, said: “Rick’s visit was an inspiration to the pupils.
"He really raised awareness of disability sport in the school and the pupils taking PE as an option really benefitted from his expertise.
His motto of ‘Believe to Achieve’ has really stuck with some of us, and it was a great visit.”
