The annual Spalding Grammar School Sports Celebration Evening saw 300 students, parents and guests celebrate another year of sporting success.
Speakers from each year group wrote speeches to summarise their season and delivered them with confidence throughout the evening. They were James Clark, Harrison Burrows, Harry Burchnall, James Stuffins and Luke Russon.
These speeches were interspersed with the awarding of full colours to a number of students and for each year group nominations and winners of the prestigious “Sportsman of the Year” were presented.
Videos displaying the school sporting trips to Amsterdam (football), Barbados (cricket) and La Thuile (skiing) were also shown.
Additional speeches were also given to outline the broader view of school sport. Firstly, brothers Casey and Corey Lewis talked about how the school had supported them with their elite performance in football and rugby, respectively.
Both reflected on the mentoring and subject support they had received to maintain strong performance both on and off the pitch.
Dan Dougill outlined how Spalding Grammar also promotes participation in sport through their broad interhouse programme.
There were also emotional moments when former student Adam Cousins and colleague Sam Walker were remembered following their unsuccessful battles with cancer.
Two new awards were presented in their memory – the Adam Cousins Award for GCSE excellence (given to Joshua Burrows) and the Sam Walker Endurance Award (given to Bradley Spurdens).
Two more new awards were also presented in recognition of support from two former parents.
The Paul Holmes Trophy was presented to Patrick Harrington and Jonny Manton for their cricketing excellence, while The Paul Kirby Award was won by Alex Richardson for his footballing commitment. Both Mr Holmes and Mr Kirby continue to give up numerous hours to support school sport, even after their sons and daughters have left the school.
Special guest for the evening was Northampton Saints and England under-20 rugby player Sam Oliver. He gave an inspirational speech about his experiences of school sport and the links and benefits sport can give to people in other facets of life.
Retiring headteacher Mr Ryan then closed the evening by reflecting upon the continuous improvement PE and school sport has made in his 11 years of headship.
SGS director of sport Dave Venables said: “This annual event is a fantastic chance for everyone to celebrate school sport at SGS. A tremendous amount of work goes into both organising this evening and running a successful school sport programme throughout the year.
“Seeing the students collecting their prizes tonight makes all that worthwhile.
“Having more awards presented than ever shows that school sport at SGS continues to grow, both in terms of participation and quality. So much of this success is down to the outstanding dedication and support of the students, parents, helpers and staff.”
