Team Leicestershire County Champions celebrated

• Uppingham Community College win the new 'Ernie White Award for Commitment to School Sport', in honour of the former Leicestershire County Councillor.

• Rawlins Academy win new 'Team Leicestershire Champion School' Award.

Team Leicestershire celebrated its third year at the Morningside Arena Leicester, home of BBL League Champions, Leicester Riders, on Tuesday 3^rd July, to recognise and celebrate the county's winning teams during 2017/18.

Over 450 athletes, representatives, proud parents and schools attended the evening which showcased and celebrated the achievements this year.

Sports Development Manager at Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport, Geoff Maltby, compered the evening, inviting up County winning teams from over 50 competitions across 7 sports: Table Tennis, Hockey, Netball, Futsal, Badminton, Football and Basketball.

Some of the winning teams progressed beyond the county finals onto regional and national finals:

• Table Tennis Champions – all of which went on to represent Leicestershire at the Regional round (the last 16 stage) of the National Team Championships in February.
• Badminton Key Stage 3 Girls and Boys Winners – Both teams went on to win all their matches at the Regionals and progressed to represent the East Midlands at the National Finals.
• Football Under 19 Boys winners reached the National Finals.

Special guests Siobhan Prior, Basketball Silver Commonwealth Medallist and Ned Eckersley, current player at Leicestershire County Cricket Club also made an appearance to congratulate the winners on the night.

2017/18 Team Leicestershire County Champions

Table Tennis

• Under 13 Girls - Market Bosworth School
• Under 13 Boys - Hastings High School
• Under 16 Girls - The Kibworth School
• Under 16 Boys - New College Leicester
• Under 19 Boys - Uppingham School

Netball

• Year 7 Girls - Loughborough High School
• Year 8 Girls - Loughborough High School
• Year 10 Girls - Loughborough High School

Hockey

• Year 7/8 Girls - Dixie Grammar School
• Year 7/8 Boys - Ivanhoe College
• Year 9/10 Girls - Ivanhoe College
• Year 9/10 Boys - Ashby School

Futsal

• Year 7 Girls - Bosworth Academy
• Year 8/9 Girls - Brookvale Groby Learning Campus
• Year 10/11 Girls - Rawlins Academy

Badminton

• Key Stage 3 Girls - Iveshead School
• Key Stage 3 Boys - Newbridge High School
• Key Stage 4 Girls - Humphrey Perkins School
• Key Stage 4 Boys - Ashby School
• Under 19 Girls - De Lisle College
• Under 19 Boys - Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College

Football

• Year 7 Girls - Countesthorpe Leysland Community College
• Year 7 Boys - South Charnwood High School
• Year 8/9 Girls - Brookvale Groby Learning Campus
• Year 8 Boys - Brookvale Groby Learning Campus
• Year 9 Boys - Woodbrook Vale School
• Year 10/11 Girls - Brookvale Groby Learning Campus
• Year 10 Boys - King Edward VII Science and Sport College
• Year 11 Boys - Brookvale Groby Learning Campus
• Under 19 Boys - Gateway College

Basketball

• Year 7 Girls - Rawlins Academy
• Year 7 Boys - Fullhurst Community College
• Year 8 Girls - The Priory Belvoir Academy
• Year 8 Boys - The Lancaster Academy
• Year 9 Girls - Rawlins Academy
• Year 9 Boys - Rawlins Academy
• Year 10/11 Girls - Rawlins Academy
• Year 10 Boys - Bosworth Academy
• Year 11 Boys - Rawlins Academy
• Under 19 Boys - Loughborough College

Cricket

• Under 13 Girls - Leicester Grammar School
• Under 15 Girls - Leicester Grammar School
• ESCA Under 15 T20 Boys - Oakham School

During this year's programme, 8,440 individual pupils have taken part in Team Leicestershire fixtures, representing 1,093 school teams. As well as recognising all the County Champions, two inaugural awards were presented.

The 'Team Leicestershire Champion School' was awarded to the school who won the most Team Leicestershire County Finals throughout the year. It was Rawlins Academy who triumphed to collect the trophy and crowned as Team Leicestershire's Champions School for 2017/18. The school has collectively won 6 finals in total.

The second, and very special new award was the 'Ernie White Award for Commitment to School Sport'. Stuart Linderman, Chair of the Team Leicestershire Board highlighted the prestige of this award, in memory of Leicestershire County Council's former Councillor Ernie White, who sadly passed away in January. "Ernie was a huge supporter of Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport and school sport across Leicestershire, supporting local programmes including the 'Competition Manager Programme', 'Youth Games', 'GO GOLD Funding Programme', 'School Games' and most recently, the evolution of Team Leicestershire, therefore it's a fitting tribute to such a great man and advocate of school sport".

Ernie's family were in attendance and presented the inaugural award in his memory. The award celebrates the school who have engaged the highest percentage of pupils from their school in Team Leicestershire competitions throughout the year. Uppingham Community College were this year's winner, engaging 37% of their pupils in Team Leicestershire competitions throughout the year. Head Teacher Ben Solly stated, "The school has worked so hard this year to engage as many pupils as possible, it's a great honour to be the recipients of this award and a testament to school staff and pupils".

Geoff Maltby, Sports Development Manager at Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport said, "Now in our third year, Team Leicestershire continues to develop and grow into a high quality co-ordinated competition programme for our secondary age young people. It's great to see new schools both entering competitions and being successful in county finals. The spread of winning schools across Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rutland this year was fantastic! I would like to thank the commitment and support of all those staff that have ensured this has been a successful programme again this year and look forward to the start of the 2018/19 season!"

Team Leicestershire is theumbrella association for the traditional competitive school sport offer across Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rutland. It is open to every secondary school – both state and independent, and aims to ensure that as many young people as possible have the opportunity to participate in competitive school sport.

Photographs from the evening are now available to view on our Facebook page.

(Pictured: Rawlins Academy winners of the 'Team Leicestershire Champion School' Award)